


Purpose

by Dreamshaper



Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020)
Genre: F/F, I'm being a bit of a jerk to her, but we'll see, ended up changing the tags cause this has taken on a life of its own lol, for now it's a slow burn, poor Helena, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-09
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:34:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 26
Words: 33,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23083288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamshaper/pseuds/Dreamshaper
Summary: Helena doesn't think much of it when Harley speaks to her of revenge and catharsis... not at first. With her mission done, she now has to find a new purpose in life, but that might not be all she'll find.
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli/Dinah Lance
Comments: 150
Kudos: 352





	1. Purpose

**Author's Note:**

> So I've seen Birds of Prey last week and for some reason, Harley's quote about vengeance and catharsis really struck a chord with me. I've been toying with this (short) idea for a while before I finally decided to write it down. I haven't read any of the comics, so I apologize if anyone is horribly off ><

_ “Psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings the catharsis we hope for.” _

Helena doesn’t think anything of it when Harley says these words to her - it’s Harley, for God’s sake, she might have been a psychiatrist in her life before the Joker, but that hardly means she still knows what she’s talking about - and she doesn’t really have time to think about them, anyway; there’s fighting, and a child in danger, and they’re all in danger too, so she has other things to worry about than the future.

So, she focuses on the fight coming fight - and what a bunch they are, she thinks to herself as they get ready, a disgraced cop, a villain, and apparently, a singer who somehow knows how to fight - and that takes up all of her attention; not only do they have to fight the small army Sionis has sent after them, but they have to protect the kid, too, and that adds an extra layer of danger she really could have done without.

She has spent a good part of her life being trained by professional assassins though, and they didn’t just teach her how to kill stealthily, but taught her hand to hand combat as well, and she knows she’s good at it - she can kill a man with her bare hands, and without breaking a sweat - and so, the coming fight doesn’t frighten her, part of her even looks forward to it, looks forward to showing that she is stronger, faster,  _ better  _ than any of the mooks Sionis has dug up.

Helena knows all these things, knows that she is better at this than any of them, but it never hurts to prove it, and she also knows that she can’t let the knowledge make her cocky - that would lead to recklessness, and recklessness is what gets people hurt, even killed.

They fight, and she does get reckless again, a bit, her adoptive dads have told her a thousand million times to not let it happen, but she can’t help herself, and so far, it always has worked out in her favour.

While they all fight, they somehow manage to look out for the kid, too -  _ Cassandra _ , she reminds herself,  _ her name is Cassandra, she’s not just some faceless, nameless kid -  _ and she even finds a moment to tell her to cover her eyes and to hand her the little toy car she’s been carrying around for years, a small comfort, but she figures it’s better than nothing.

They fight, and they win, working together surprisingly well, considering they never have done this before; the fight feels long, as they always do, but is over fast, as they always are, and before the adrenaline rush has even worn off fully, Helena finds herself in a dingy bar, and Harley is getting them drinks while Dinah and Renee excitedly recount the greatest moments of their fight. 

They are talking, and laughing, and Helena just sits there and feels oddly empty.

For the past years, she’s had a clearly defined goal, and she’s been looking forward to the moment she’d get it done; and now it is done, the last person on her hit list is dead, she has avenged her family.

She’s always been sure that she’ll be happy when she makes it, ecstatic, even, but now she’s just empty, and now that she has time to think, she realizes that she no longer has a purpose, no longer has a goal she can work for.

Harley puts down the margaritas, and pushes one closer to her, and she takes it without fully noticing what she is doing; she barely tastes it when she drinks, barely registers the burn of the alcohol down her throat, staring into the glass as if it might answer her unasked questions while the others keep talking and laughing. 

Only when Dinah says her name and pokes her in the ribs, too, Helena snaps out of it, and realizes that this most likely isn’t the first time she’s been addressed.

“Are you okay?” Dinah asks, raising an eyebrow at her, “I’ve almost been shouting your name. You’re not hurt, are you.”

“I’m fine”, Helena tells her, and physically, she is, but mentally, she’s not, but she doesn’t know how to speak about this strange emptiness, “just, uh… tired.”

“I guess we all are”, Dinah nods, just as Harley excitedly bounces to her feet and shouts something about just desserts, and boy does Helena hope she’s talking about some sweet food, “we’ve had quite the day, haven’t we. After this drink, I’ll go and get some rest, what about you?”

“I got a motel room”, Helena tells her, not quite sure why, but it seems like a safe thing to say, “I’ll get some rest there, too, yeah, that sounds good.”

“Motel shmotel”, Dinah says, and Helena can only blink, “I got room enough for you, no friend of mine is gonna sleep in some motel when I got a very comfy couch. You’ll come home with me.”

It’s not a question, not even a real invite, it’s just a statement… but Helena finds herself smiling, and nodding, and the emptiness slowly fades.

_ No friend of mine. She’s your friend. You got friends now. _

Perhaps, she ponders as she takes another sip of her margarita, she no longer has a purpose, and perhaps she hasn’t been given the catharsis she truly has been hoping for… but she has a friend now, more than one, even, and maybe, her new friends can help her figure out what to do with her life now.

She’s quite sure that it’s going to be something amazing. 


	2. Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out that these characters don't want to leave my brain alone yet, haha. So I added a little bit to the previous short story :) Set just a few hours later.

Dinah didn’t exaggerate, Helena thinks to herself as she lies on the couch, the couch really is comfy.

It’s soft, but not too soft, and she has a blanket and a pillow, too, that’s more than she has had some nights, nights during which she was after one of her targets, spending the hours on rooftops and in dark side alleys, watching them, stalking them, learning their routines and their ways, not letting cold or damp or anything else stop her. 

The couch is comfy, she feels warm and she’s tired, and still she can’t sleep. 

Dinah has retreated to her bedroom a while ago, hours, perhaps, usually, Helena is good at telling the time, but her inner clock is wonky tonight, no surprise after all the action, and since then, Helena has been lying on this couch, and staring up at the ceiling.

For a while, she’s been lying on her side, and staring at the wall, but that got boring after a while; the ceiling isn’t much more interesting, but she’s more comfy like this, and she doesn’t want to shift around too much, she’s not sure Dinah can hear it in the adjoining bedroom, but if she does, Helena doesn’t want to wake her up. 

It’s not like this is her first sleepless night, she sourly ponders as she lies there, tired and yet wide awake, an odd contrast, she’s had them before, quite a few of them; during some, she was awake all night long, and during others, she has fallen asleep, only to wake up with a scream stuck in her throat and the image of her dying family seared into her mind. 

Helena wonders if the dreams will stop, now that she has completed her goal and has avenged her family; part of her hopes that they will, she’s had them more nights than she can be bothered to count, but another, bigger part of her is quite sure they won’t, that she’ll have to deal with them for the rest of her life. 

Perhaps, she thinks to herself, it’s a good thing she can’t sleep, because she certainly doesn’t want to repay Dinah for her unexpected kindness by waking her up in the middle of the night with her screams, usually, she doesn’t cry out when she snaps out of a nightmare, but sometimes, it still happens, and she’s fairly certain it would happen this time, when she really doesn’t want it to.

She holds back a sigh and finally does turn again, facing the wall once more; she can see the dark outline of picture frames against said wall, but can’t see in the dark what the pictures show, and when she arrived her with Dinah hours ago, she’s been too distracted by everything whirling through her mind to pay much attention.

Her adoptive dads would have scolded her for this, she knows, had they been there to notice; she’s been taught to always be aware of her surroundings, to notice details others miss, and she’s supposed to do so all the time, but she figures that she’ll get a pass tonight, after all the excitement and action.

And after she finished her last target, she realizes once more, with an oddly painful pang this time, she’s taken down the last man on her list, and she’s done.

She’s done, and she still doesn’t know what to do.

The emptiness comes back, and she has no idea what to do about it; she doesn’t know how to combat it, she’s good at fighting people, but she has no idea how to handle the chaos in her own mind.

The sound of a door opening distracts her from her thoughts, and she sits up straight, eyes narrowing as she tries to figure out if it’s an intruder or if it’s just Dinah; it turns out to be the latter, and Dinah doesn’t seem surprised the slightest to find Helena awake on her couch and not fast asleep.

“Hey”, she says, keeping her voice low even though it’s just the two of them and there’s no one else around she might wake up, but then, Helena has witnessed the power of her voice firsthand, so perhaps it’s smart of her to keep it low, “I didn’t wake you, did I.”

Like when she told Helena she’d come home with her, it’s not a question, but a statement; Helena shrugs, then shakes her head, and makes a face, even though she’s fairly certain Dinah can’t see it in the dark anyway.

“Can’t sleep”, she then states the obvious, but she doesn’t add a reason why; and Dinah doesn’t ask, she just nods and moves to sit next to her, giving Helena just a moment to pull back her legs so she won’t end up sitting on them. 

Helena expects her to say something, some meaningless phrase perhaps, about how it will be okay or how it’s all gonna be fine; Dinah says no such thing though, she just sits there, and if it had been anyone else, Helena would have felt awkward and uncomfortable.

Oddly though, she doesn’t feel this way with Dinah there, she feels a strange sense of companionship instead, and she finds herself moving so that they end up sitting side by side. 

They sit close now, so close that she can feel the warmth of Dinah’s body, it’s the closest she’s been to anyone in a long time; they sit close together and in silence, and even though it should be strange and uncomfortable, it isn’t.

They sit like this until they both fall asleep, and both sleep peacefully until the next day dawns. 


	3. Morning

Helena wakes when the sun shines onto her face, and it takes her a moment or two to realize where she is, to remember that she’s in Dinah’s home.

It takes her another moment to realize that Dinah is still fast asleep next to her, slumped against her, with her head resting on her shoulder in an angle which looks decidedly uncomfortable, but it doesn’t seem to have any impact on Dinah’s sleep.

Immediately, any degree of relaxation she has achieved during the night is gone, and she sits perfectly still, barely dares to breathe, suddenly hyper aware of Dinah’s weight and warmth against her own body. 

For the past fifteen years, the only human contact she’s had has been her training and the times when she has fought and / or killed someone, and she can’t remember the last time anyone has been this close to her, at least not anyone who hasn’t had the intention to harm and kill her.

Fortunately, she thinks to herself, she’s very good at sitting still, the last thing she wants is to wake up Dinah on accident, even though the position the other woman is in really doesn’t look comfortable and Helena figures that every extra minute she spends like this will make it worse.

Thankfully, she doesn’t have to sit perfectly still for long, just a few minutes after she has woken up, Dinah stirs next to her, then opens her eyes and lets out a hearty yawn; Helena manages to duck in the last second as Dinah stretches, and the movement seems to remind her that she’s not alone on the couch, as she pauses mid-stretch, then looks at Helena, apparently not bothered by the fact that she spent a good portion of the night snuggled up to her.

“Good morning”, she says, only confirming that impression, “please tell me I didn’t drool on you?”

“Um, no”, Helena manages to say, somewhat taken aback by this question; Dinah flashes a bright smile at her, then practically hops up from the couch and stretches again, making a face when her neck cracks audibly.

“Okay”, she then says, while Helena still just sits there, feeling a bit awkward now, “no more sleeping sitting upright on the couch, especially not after an exciting battle. You want first shower?”

“Um, no”, Helena repeats, then realizes she has to sound like an idiot and clears her throat, “I mean, it’s… it’s your place. You go first.”

“Kay”, Dinah says with another smile and walks off towards the bathroom; Helena sits there for another minute as she hears the shower start, then feels too awkward and uncomfortable to just wait there another moment and comes to her feet, figuring she might as well try and make breakfast for the two of them, after she’s spent the night on Dinah’s couch. 

She’s halfway to the kitchen when she realizes that she hasn’t known Dinah for a full twenty-four hours yet, and it might be considered rude or strange to just putter around in her kitchen then; she freezes, having to admit to herself that she’s woefully unprepared for a situation like this one, but then, not even her adoptive dads could have seen  _ this  _ coming.

For a few seconds, Helena just stand there, having no idea what to do; then, she decides she doesn’t want to risk making Dinah angry by invading her privacy like that and goes back to the living room, figuring she might as well pass the time with cleaning her crossbow. 

She’s cleaned it the previous evening, after a short, effective shower and before she tried to go to sleep, but it can’t hurt to clean it again, after all, she has been taught it is important to keep one’s tools clean, especially when those tools are used to kill people. 

_ Can’t have dirt get into it and have it lock up in a crucial moment _ , she repeats what her adoptive dads taught her as she starts taking the crossbow apart; her hands move almost on their own, she has done this so many times by now she can do it in her sleep, but it’s oddly calming, too, it helps her mind to settle when things are happening too fast.

Things are certainly happening fast now, she ponders as she works, barely registering that she keeps listening for the noises from the bathroom as Dinah is having her shower in there, not even twenty-four hours ago, she’s been on the hunt still, looking for the last man on her list, and here she is now, with her mission done. 

At least, the task at hand keeps her mind from wandering this time, and keeps her from pondering the fact that she has no idea what she wants to do with her life now; she works diligently, focused on the job, but still she hears and registers it when the running water stops, and doesn’t startle when Dinah speaks up a minute later.

“Bathroom’s all yours”, Dinah says just as Helena slides the last piece back into place and the crossbow is reassembled, “I put a towel out for you, it’s in the washbasin.”

“Thanks”, Helena says as she starts to get up from the couch, and then she gets a good look at Dinah and nearly slumps back down, only years of training giving her enough control over her body to stop it from happening - because Dinah hasn’t bothered to get dressed again yet, only wrapped in one towel while she’s using another one to dry her hair. 

Somehow, she manages to keep her face perfectly neutral despite that unexpected sight, and only has to clear her throat in reaction; her cheeks feel oddly warm though as she heads past Dinah to the bathroom, and she’s fairly certain she sees Dinah smirk when she walks past her. 

Helena has not the slightest idea what to think of this, and even less of an idea how to find out if this is actually normal in friendships or if something weird is going on… but she’s quite sure she will find out, sooner or later, and she’s not sure how she feels about that. 


	4. Breakfast

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has truly taken on a life of its own, ahem. Thank you to everyone who's reading, commenting, and leaving kudos, you guys rock :D

The shower helps Helena to regain her wits, a bit, and she tells herself to not be stupid as she washes her hair - with Dinah’s weirdly smelling shampoo, no less, the bottle claims its lavender, but it doesn’t seem much like lavender to her - and scrubs her body, taking a bit longer than strictly necessary; and by the time she steps out of the shower and dries off, she’s her usual self, having convinced herself that friends do things like walk around in front of each other just dressed in a towel all the time. 

By the time she gets done and is dressed - in the clothes she’s used the previous day, so the shower’s been sorta useless - Dinah has put on some clothes, too, and is sitting at the kitchen table, looking at her phone; she puts it down though when Helena enters and smiles at her, then nods at the general direction of the doorway, surprising Helena with her next words, as she has been somewhat sure she’d just leave now and that’d be it.

“So”, Dinah says instead of asking her to leave, “you up for breakfast? There’s a diner down on the corner, they’re quite dingy and the clientele is questionable, but they make amazing coffee. And even better pancakes.”

“...sure”, Helena agrees after a moment, she does feel hungry, and she knows that her body can use the energy, after the previous night; Dinah gives her another bright smile and gets up from her chair, looking oddly overjoyed, considering they are just going to breakfast. 

Dinah is probably hungry too, Helena figures as she pulls on her boots and ties the laces, and that’s why she seems so happy; her own stomach rumbles, as if to confirm her thoughts, loud enough to have Dinah hear it, and yet again Helena feels her cheeks heat up oddly when the other woman giggles heartily at the sound. 

“Whoa there”, she then says, and the teasing undertone in her voice is not unnoticed by Helena, “no more delays allowed, apparently, so we better get going.”

Helena just nods, not quite sure if any other sort of reply is needed; apparently not though, as Dinah just makes a vague gesture at the door, and together, they head out, Helena sneaking glances at her every now and then as they walk side by side. 

Looking at her now, one never would guess that Dinah’s been fighting the previous night; she looks relaxed and content, even carefree, so different from how Helena feels. 

She wonders if she should say anything, if it’s rude to just walk in silence - she has been taught many things in Sicily, but social interactions hasn’t been one of them, and only now, she fully realizes how woefully unprepared she is for situations like this one. 

Fortunately, the diner isn’t too far, and they don’t have to walk too long in silence; it should have been uncomfortable anyway, but somehow, it isn’t, and Helena wonders why that is.

It’s still early, so there are not many seats taken once they arrive at the diner; Dinah leads the way, apparently already knowing which booth she wants, and Helena ends up sitting opposite of her, with her back to the door, something she usually avoids, but figures is okay this time since she’s not here alone.

Still she automatically checks her surroundings as she sits down, notes things she can use as weapons just in case - salt and pepper shakers, sugar shakers, even napkin dispensers - and potential exits if the front door is unusable; and apparently, Dinah notices what she is doing, because she raises an eyebrow, then shakes her head, a hint of amusement in her voice when she speaks up.

“Jeez, relax”, she says, and Helena feels oddly caught, even though she has been trained to always make sure she has weapons at hand and an exit nearby, “do you ever stop?”

“No”, Helena flatly says, and even though she means it, Dinah seems to find it funny, letting out a burst of laughter, and only laughing harder when Helena frowns in response. 

“Sorry, sorry”, Dinah finally regains some of her composure, “I’m not laughing at you, I swear. Just… lighten up a bit? You don’t need to be on edge all the time, you know. That can’t be good.”

Helena just shrugs, having no idea how to put into words what she feels at this - how to explain that for the past fifteen years, she has always been on edge, doesn’t have an idea how not to be, even when she’s been asleep, part of her has been on guard, always ready for an attack, ready to defend herself. 

She has no idea how to voice these thoughts, but Dinah must pick them up anyhow, somehow, because her gaze softens, and she surprises Helena by reaching over the table and touching her hand, for just one second, but it’s enough to send a strange jolt up her arm, gentle touches of any kind not being something she’s very used to.

“Relax”, Dinah says again, either unaware of the reaction she’s caused with her touch or being kind enough to not mention it, “you don’t have to be on edge all the time anymore, you got me to watch your back now.”

Helena figures that there are worse people who could be watching her back, she has seen Dinah fight after all; and so, she manages a small, somewhat tight smile, and a brief nod, and while it’s not much, it’s enough for Dinah, as Helena earns a bright smile in return.

“Dinah!” a booming voice interrupts Helena’s thoughts, and she jumps, a quick look from Dinah signalling though that it’s okay as a bulky man appears next to their booth, moving with surprising grace for someone with his build, “good morning to you! The usual for you?”

“Good morning to you, too, Sam”, Dinah says, and Helena finally does allow herself to relax, realizing they know each other, “and yes, the usual for me. Coffee and pancakes okay for you, too?”

“Yeah, sure, fine”, Helena babbles, then regains her wits and forces herself to shut up, feeling confused and awkward at her own reaction; the big guy just nods though, and retreats, and Helena manages to relax again, even manages a small smile when Dinah gleefully rubs her hands.

“You’ll love the pancakes, I promise”, she then said, nodding for emphasis, “best pancakes in town. Trust me!”

“I do”, Helena says without thinking, and realizes too late that there is more weight behind those words than she intended; she feels her cheeks heat up, but Dinah just smiles, and says nothing.

She says nothing, but somehow, Helena still feels as if Dinah is aware of the weight her words carried… and it makes her feel good, better than she has in a long time, and for the first time since she set foot into Gotham City, she truly relaxes.


	5. Plans

“Okay, I’ll give you that”, Helena says after the first few bites, “these pancakes really are delicious.”

“Told you”, Dinah replies, her smile a bit smug; Helena hides her own smile behind her coffee cup as she takes a sip, then shovels more pancake into her mouth, because they really are delicious, the best she’s ever had.

“So”, Dinah says after they both just have eaten in silence for a while, and once again, Helena ponders how this silence should have been uncomfortable, but somehow isn’t, “what are you gonna do now?”

Helena freezes, the fork with a piece of pancake halfway to her mouth; she’s been aware of the fact that she no longer has a purpose, but to be asked so bluntly has to make her fully face this fact, and she’s not sure she’s ready.

She’s not sure she’s ready, but it seems that Dinah won’t give her much time to figure it out, cause she looks at her questioningly and doesn’t appear like she’s going to take the question back. 

“I…”, Helena starts, then has to pause and clear her throat before she can try again, “I don’t… know.”

Saying it out loud makes it  _ real _ , and for a few moments, she finds it hard to breathe, as if all the air has left the room, her chest feeling oddly tight… and then Dinah touches her hand again, just for a second, but it makes it better, it brings the air back, and it makes the tightness vanish. 

“Do you remember what Renee said?” Dinah asks, making sure to hold her gaze, an easy feat as Helena finds it hard, nearly impossible, to look away, “at the bar yesterday? About cleaning up Gotham?”

“Yeah”, Helena says, in a slightly stronger voice now, not bothering to point out that this has been said not even twenty-four hours ago, so of course she remembers; Dinah smiles and casually leans back into her seat, playing idly with her coffee cup, but she’s looking at Helena somewhat intensely now, her gaze betraying her casual posture. 

“What do you think about that idea?” she asks, and Helena’s first reaction is to shrug… before she thinks about it, really thinks about it, and realizes that it might be one of the few things she actually can do, now that her mission is done.

She has skills, quite a few, but none of them are suitable to let her lead a normal life with a nine to five job; her skills are useful for fighting criminals though, as she has proven over and over again at this point, and she starts warming to the idea quickly.

“It might work”, she thus says, and Dinah immediately smiles, and even looks a bit relieved, as if she hasn’t been quite sure what Helena’s answer might be, “the three of us… Yeah, we might make a good team. And it’s not like I got much else to do, now that I’m… done.”

“Yeah, I figured”, Dinah says, still smiling happily; belatedly, Helena realizes she still has the fork in hand, halfway between the plate and her mouth, and she moves it up the rest of the way, the delicious pancake helping even further to make her feel better.

“Awesome”, Dinah adds, still smiling, “I’ll text Renee then, let her know we’re up for it if she still is and wasn’t just daydreaming out loud.”

She pulls her phone from her pocket and quickly types the text while Helena focuses on her pancakes again; the phone vibrates in Dinah’s hand seconds after she’s sent the text, and judging from how Dinah lets out a “Yes!”, it has to be good news, an assumption which is proven correct when Dinah turns the phone and shows the message to Helena.

_ I’m down if you guys are,  _ it says,  _ let’s meet tonight and discuss details? Seven, my place. _

She’s added the address, and Helena memorizes it without even fully being aware that she does; Dinah asks her if the time and place are okay, and she shrugs, then nods, not having much else to do anyway.

“I don’t have special plans”, she says out loud, “well, except from getting my bike looked at. Turns out that five minutes in the general vicinity of Harley were enough to do damage to it.”

To her surprise, Dinah lets out a burst of laughter, loud enough to make other people turn their heads and look at them; not quite sure what to think of this, Helena just blinks, ignoring the stares of the others as Dinah still giggles, but finally regains her composure.

“Who knew”, she says, smirking at Helena in a way which makes her cheeks feel warm again, “the Huntress can joke, too. You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?”

Helena just shrugs, not quite sure what to respond to this; Dinah gives her another smirk, then finishes her coffee, leaning back into her seat contently, watching how Helena polishes off the last of her pancakes as well.

“Well”, Dinah adds, clearly not bothered by the lack of verbal response, “guess I’ll learn what other hidden qualities you have when we start this thing together, huh? Can’t say I’m not curious.”

“Don’t expect too much”, Helena tells her, not quite sure what else to say; Dinah just smiles, and winks at her, which makes her cheeks feel warm again, then waves over the big guy to pay, ignoring Helena’s protests when she pays her coffee and food, too.

“No worries”, Dinah tells her as she puts her wallet away again, “I’m a regular here, I get a special discount. Just saving you some money.”

Helena’s first impulse is to say that money is not an issue, she might not have access to the Bertinelli fortune, but she’s not exactly poor, anyway; then, she realizes that this might be another one of those friendship things though and decides to keep quiet, and apparently, this was the right decision, as Dinah gives her yet another smile, then comes to her feet, signalling that it’s time to go.

So, Helena gets up too, and they leave the diner together; outside, Dinah asks Helena to put her number into her phone, and she does, Dinah sending her a text afterwards so she’ll have her number, too, reassuring her she’ll let her know in case anything about time and place of their meeting changes.

“See you later, then”, she adds, and Helena nods; for a moment, she wonders if they should shake hands now, once again realizing how unprepared she is for all of this, but before she can come to any sort of conclusion, Dinah has given her another smile - before she turns and walks off, Helena blinking as she watches her go.

_ Guess no handshake, then,  _ she thinks to herself as she gets moving too, heading the other way to where she’d parked her bike the previous night; and just when she arrives at it, her phone vibrates in her pocket, and she pauses to pull it out and take a look at it.

It’s from Dinah, a picture captioned with “look what Harley left taped to my door”; at first glance, it looks like a string of random numbers, but it only takes Helena a second to figure it out, and her eyes widen.

It’s the account information from the diamond, and just like that, from one moment to the next, she’s been made a millionaire. 


	6. Group

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Considering that this started out as a tiny idea, it certainly has grown since then, lol. I got the next few chapters done and am currently working on more, so - enjoy :)

Helena arrives at Renee’s apartment right at seven o’clock, and so, she’s surprised to see that Dinah’s already there, sitting on the couch with a beer in hand, a clear sign that she hasn’t just arrived; it seems she’s not considered late though, as Renee and Dinah both just greet her, then Renee offers her a seat and practically pushes a bottle of beer into her hands.

“Okay, let’s get straight to business”, the former cop then says, once again reminding Helena of 80s cop shows, but she holds the comment back, remembering the scowl she got for it last time; Dinah catches her eye though, and winks and smirks, silently telling her she’s not the only one having that sort of thoughts.

“We all know Gotham is a cesspool of scumbags and crime”, Renee continues, and Dinah quickly brings up her beer bottle to hide her smirk, Helena feeling on tug at her lips as well and mirroring her motion, Renee apparently oblivious to this as she speaks, “but the three of us can do something against it. I think we will work together very well, and with the three of us, we got all the skills we’ll need.”

“To put it into simpler words”, Dinah comments, “we’ll kick ass. Well, as I said, I’m in. Helena?”

“I’m in, too”, Helena says at once, not needing to think about it this time, “it is what I’m good at.”

“Good”, Renee says, as if she hasn’t expected anything else - and she probably hasn’t, Helena reflects, she’s known who she was the moment she laid eyes on her, so she knows all about what happened to her family and about her mission, and knows that she’s done now, and that she has nothing else to do anyway, “so it’s settled, we’ll clean up this city one scumbag at a time. Now we just need to figure out the details, like who does what, how to pay for everything, where to start.”

“Money won’t be an issue”, Helena throws in, making them both look at her; Dinah already knows, Helena figures, she knows Dinah is smart and certainly could put two and two together after she’s found the message from Harley at her door, but Renee doesn’t.

“I got access to my family’s money now”, she thus explains, “Harley probably pawned the diamond by now, but she was kind enough to hand the numbers over to Dinah.”

“Oh”, Renee lets out, then her eyes widen as the full implications of these words settle, “oh, wow! You’re rich!”

“Quite so, yes”, Helena agrees, “I got more money than I know what to do with now, so, like I said… that won’t be an issue.”

“Okay, so we got one thing taken care of”, Renee nods, then surprises Helena by giving her a bright smile, Dinah doing the same almost the exact same moment, “and thanks, Crossbow, I appreciate it.”

“Not calling me that anymore will be thanks enough”, Helena flatly says, and once again her words have an unexpected effect, as Dinah lets out a snort of laughter; apparently, she has said something funny again without even meaning to, but somehow, she knows Dinah isn’t laughing at her out of spite, so it doesn’t bother her.

_ She does have a cute laugh _ , Helena thinks to herself as she raises her bottle to her mouth, and just like in the diner, she freezes halfway, startled as she realizes what she just has been thinking.

_ Wait, what? _

“Okay, alright”, Renee’s voice distracts her from her own thoughts, and she remembers to finish her movement and to take a sip of her beer, “no more Crossbow, I promise. Well, it might still slip out a few times, so don’t be offended in case it does.”

“Fine”, Helena agrees, “I assume you’ll use the connections you still have to the cops to find us leads?”

It’s not exactly an elegant change of topic, but it works, because Renee nods, and starts thinking out loud about whom she can trust enough to ask; there’s her ex-girlfriend, apparently, even though she’s not a cop, and some guy she got along with well enough that she’ll dare to ask him, all three of them figuring that two contacts will be enough at first, until they’ve made a name for themselves and their network will expand. 

“We need a name”, Dinah says excitedly, “for our group, I mean! A memorable one, and it should be badass, too.”

Renee lets out a thoughtful “hmm”, not averse to the idea, but apparently not having any ideas for a name; and Helena has nothing, either, this kind of creativity has never been her strong suit - she’s good at creatively killing people, but never had to come up with any sort of fancy name for a group, having needed quite a bit of time already to settle on Huntress just for herself. 

“Okay, you guys are no help”, Dinah declares, and Helena makes a face, “and if we ask Harley, we’ll end with some ridiculous name like the Badass Broads, that won’t do. We’ll need something better. Something like… the Birds of Prey!”

“The bird part makes sense”, Renee agrees, “but we only got one bird in this group, which is you. Is a canary even a bird of prey?”

“We also got Huntress, who strikes fast and stealthily, like a falcon”, Dinah points out, and Helena finds herself smiling at this comparison, liking it quite a bit, “you got another idea?”

“Well, no”, Renee has to admit, Helena just shaking her head when Dinah gives her a questioning look; and so, it’s decided, Dinah looking excited as she excitedly declares that they’ll be the Birds of Prey from this moment on. 

“I won’t go by Falcon though”, Helena dryly says, and while once more she hasn’t intended it to be funny, it makes Dinah laugh, and Renee too, this time; and again Helena knows that it isn’t laughter at her with malicious intent, and she finds herself smiling as well.

They are at the start of something good here, she realizes, and perhaps, she will soon have a purpose in her life again, faster than expected and a nobler one than she’s dared to hope for. 


	7. Briefing

With Gotham being Gotham, it doesn’t take Renee long to get a lead which is suitable for them; it’s a small thing, in comparison to other mooks and baddies in Gotham, but it’s a start, she lets them know during the mission briefing, and a good chance to find out how well they truly work together.

“It’s a drug deal, of a sorts”, she tells them, handing out folders with photos and more information on the participants of said deal, “one group selling the ingredients for meth to another one. They’re not among the big fish, but they might get there if no one stops them, and we got more than enough drugs out there without them adding to it.”

“They’re doing their deal at the harbour?” Dinah wants to know, studying the folder, Helena being a bit impressed at the fact that Renee made actual files for them, as if they were officials on a job and not vigilantes, “how cliché. But good for us, lot of cover there.”

“Agreed”, Helena nods, and the proud smile Dinah shoots her makes her feel oddly warm inside, “and these guys sound like amateurs, but we should still have a proper plan. Can’t have our very first mission go awry.”

“You’re good at scouting and not being noticed”, Renee tells her in response, “well, when you want to be. So I hope you’ll want to be for this, because I want you to figure out their positions first, then relay them to us, so we can come up with the best attack strategy.”

“I can do that”, Helena nods, “no problem there. I’ll try to figure out their weapons, too, but that’ll depend on how close to them I can get.”

“Don’t take any unnecessary risks”, Dinah immediately says, giving her a strict look, “we either go up against them together, or not at all. If they surprise us with too much firepower, I can always use my cry to knock them out.”

“Which knocks you out, too”, Helena points out, and Dinah colours at her next words, “that is no risk? You only do that when we’re close to you, you hear?”

“Of course”, Dinah agrees at once, to Helena’s relief; Renee nods, too, then pulls a map of the harbour from her own file, and together, they quickly work out the best route for Helena to take, one which will bring her reasonably close to the two groups, but won’t expose her much to them.

They work out the plan the best they can with the information they have; and soon, they are as ready as they can be, Renee nodding in satisfaction.

“Alright, good”, she says, then checks her watch, “we got done faster than I thought we would, so we got an hour left before we have to head out. Unless we want to head out now, scout ahead, so to speak.”

“We should”, Helena says at once, not really surprising either of them, “can’t hurt to be there early, know the exact layout. One can never be too prepared.”

Both Dinah and Renee nod at this, and the ex-cop goes to find her weapon; Helena takes a moment to check her crossbow and the knives she’s got strapped to her wrists and calves, and then, they are ready, and Helena feels excited at the prospect of going out and taking care of some bad guys.

Technically, Renee has asked them both to avoid killing them, but they all know it might end up being necessary, and she has no qualms to do so; she has spent the last fifteen years killing those who murdered her family, and now, she has no problem to continue, and to take care of people who would hurt and even kill others. 

She’s a bit miffed that they all get into Renee’s car and she has to leave her bike behind, but figures it makes sense for them to stay together even on the way to the harbour; she ends up in the backseat while Dinah takes the passenger seat, and looks out the window at the city passing by as Renee drives, feeling oddly content even though she knows they are driving right into a very dangerous situation.

They might get hurt, she knows, or even killed, if things really go wrong; this has been a danger she has been living with for the past fifteen years though, and the thrill of being in a fight, of  _ winning _ a fight, is bigger than any sense of self-preservation she still might have left, fighting being one of the few ways she can make use of the anger she feels almost constantly ever since her family has been gunned down in front of her.

The only time she hasn’t angry lately, she realizes as the car keeps speeding through the night, was when she’s been with Dinah, in the singer’s home and when they’d gone out for breakfast; she wonders for a moment what that means,  _ if  _ it means anything, then harshly reminds herself that she has other things to worry about for the moment, that a fight is coming and that she’ll need to keep her focus on that, if only so she won’t make a mistake and get hurt.

_ When on a mission, that mission is all you focus on _ , she remembers, words she has been told roughly a million times during the first year of her training,  _ the mission, and doing whatever is necessary to complete it. Anything else, you can worry about later. _

Helena nods to herself as she recalls this lesson, then briefly touches her crossbow; she briefly thinks back to how her adoptive fathers have gifted this weapon to her, when she’s completed her training, and a small smile curls her lips as she remembers this moment as one of the few she’s been happy in the past years. 

Then, the harbour appears up ahead, and Helena pushes everything which is not about the mission out of her mind; and by the time Renee stops the car and they all get out, she feels cool and calm, the way she knows she should feel, only giving a terse nod when Renee asks her if she is ready.

“Take care, Huntress”, Dinah says, and just for a second, Helena feels decidedly less cool and calm at the smile Dinah gives her; then, she regains her wits, and just nods again - before she turns and hurries off, her black clothing making it easy for her to melt into the darkness, her heart beating fast in her chest with excitement as their first mission begins.


	8. First Mission

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fighting in this chapter, but nothing worse than in the movie :) The fight scene, for those who are interested in this kind of "Behind the Scenes" stuff, was written to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzWizk3e4MM

“Three guys from the buyer group, three guys from delivery”, Helena whispers to Renee and Dinah just a short while later; the containers and buildings scattered all over the harbour have provided her with excellent cover, and she’s been able to get closer than she’d thought, now knowing more than enough to give useful information to her teammates.

“Seems they wanted to keep it even”, she adds, “delivery guys have gun holsters, didn’t see any on the buyers, but they might be keeping them hidden. Better assume all of them have guns and act accordingly. Delivery guys are standing here, close to the containers, buyers facing them, about three feet away when I came back here.”

“Good job”, Renee praises her, Dinah nodding along, “alright, let’s hit them then before they get done with their business and we’re too late. Huntress, you go first, but we’ll be right behind you. And remember, knock them out if you can, no killing unless it really can’t be helped, we want to put these guys behind bars, not six feet under.”

“I’ll try”, Helena says, and while this is not a promise that she’ll try hard, it seems enough for Renee, as she nods; they all take a moment to focus, to get as calm as possible, then Helena starts moving, with fast, secure strides.

This is not the first time she walks into danger like that, far from it, and she’s fairly certain it won’t be the last, not if this goes well; the deal has started, she can tell from afar, and at first, they don’t notice her… then one of them does, and looks at her, in surprise at first, then with a disgusting leer, and she decides that he’ll be the first to go down.

“Hey, Lady”, he calls out to her, and that makes the others look at her as well; judging from how he only addresses her, Helena figures that Dinah and Renee are out of sight, and that’s smart, that will surprise them, and surprise usually buys a second or two of extra time.

She hardly ever needs more than that.

“Are you lost?” the guy wants to know, grinning now, probably thinking he’s oh so witty; the others don’t seem to feel all too threatened either, even though she can see one of them has his hand close to his gun, and he’ll be the second one to go down.

“No”, she says, and then she shoots forward, faster than any of them have expected; she hears one of them gasp, but doesn’t look, her focus is on the leering guy, and before he can do more than let his eyes widen, she has reached him and her fist smashes into his face and he goes down, crying out as blood spurts from his nose.

A quick kick with her steel-toed boot sends him off into dreamland and he falls silent; from the corner of her eye, Helena sees the one who’d had his hand close to the gun move, and in one fluent motion, she drops to her knees and pulls the crossbow from over her shoulder and fires, and he falls, too, screaming in pain with a bolt protruding from his side now.

Two down, four to go, and those four are getting over their surprise, weapons out now… and just when one of them aims for her, Dinah comes rushing out of the dark, having jumped from one of the freight containers, both feet slamming into the guy’s chest and sending him down, as well.

A gunshot mixes with the screams of the guy Helena has shot - she figures he’s not lethally hurt, usually, people who are about to die don’t scream quite so much - and another one goes down; that leaves two, and she just has to exchange one look with Dinah to know which one of those two will be hers, it’s uncanny, they’ve only known each other for such a short time, but already, they work together so well.

She goes for the one to her left, while Dinah moves for the other one; a metallic glint flashes up in his hand, but Helena sees it coming, and sidesteps the somewhat clumsy swipe of the knife, it doesn’t even graze her skin, and before the guy can recover from the missed hit, her foot shoots out, and she kicks the knife out of his hand, a pained cry coming from him when his wrist breaks.

He stumbles a few steps back, and Helena follows, teeth grit as she makes slightly unorthodox use of her crossbow and slams it into his face; he staggers, but doesn’t fall, and she follows up with a hard jab to his jaw, and that does the trick, he hits the ground and lies still, out cold.

Helena’s blood is still up, adrenaline is pumping through her, and she wants to keep going, so she spins around to see if Dinah needs any help; just as she does though, the guy Dinah has been fighting goes down, and this is it, all six lie on the ground, some of them groaning, most of them out cold, none of them in any state anymore to fight back.

“Okay”, Renee says, lowering her gun and looking from Dinah to Helena, appearing quite impressed, “I have to admit, I was hoping it would go well, but I did not dare hope it would go as awesome as this. Great job, ladies.”

Dinah does a little bow, as if she just finished a set on stage, and Helena find herself letting out a snort of laughter; this earns her a surprised look from Dinah and a raised eyebrow from Renee, but she figures she can blame it on the adrenaline, still feeling on edge even though the fight is over.

“I’ll call my contact”, Renee tells them, “so these guys are taken care of. Good job not killing any of them, too, even though that bolt might have done the job, that was a close one, Huntress.”

“Nah”, Helena replies at once, looking at the guy, who by now has fallen unconscious and is quiet, “if I’d wanted to kill him, he’d be dead. I know what I’m doing.”

Renee raises an eyebrow again at that, but doesn’t argue back; she just pulls out her phone and walks a few steps away, Helena keeping her eyes on the knocked out guys just in case one of them comes back around and decides he wants to try fighting back. 

“You know”, Dinah says, distracting her from making sure none of their targets will try anything stupid, “Renee’s right, that really went amazingly well. You were amazing.”

“Um”, Helena lets out, not all too smart - her adoptive dads have praised her whenever she’s done something perfectly right, but they never told her she’s amazing, they were stingy with their praise, telling her that there is always room for improvement, that she can be better, faster, stronger still, “thank you…?”

Dinah smiles at her in response, and then Renee comes back and asks if they want to go out for a celebratory drink once the bad guys have been picked up, claiming she’s too wired to go home and rest; they both agree to that, then move out of sight to keep an eye on the guys until the police arrives to take them away, all three of them feeling confident and good after this successful first mission, and all three of them sure that many more just as successful ones will follow.


	9. Celebration

“To us”, Dinah declares as she raises her shot glass, Helena doing the same, and trying to not eye the liquid in said glass too obviously, “and our first successful job! We did great, girls.”

She knocks the shot back, in perfect sync with Renee, and Helena does the same a second later; and another second later, she’s coughing and her eyes are watering, everything blurring in front of her as she struggles to keep the shockingly strong alcohol down.

“Jesus”, she finally manages, Renee staring at her while Dinah is helpfully patting her back, “what is this? Disinfectant?”

“Just vodka”, Dinah says, and Helena can tell that she is trying hard to not laugh out loud, probably so she won’t feel like she’s being laughed at, “but it is the strongest one they have. You okay?”

“Fine”, Helena wheezes, and now a little giggle does escape from Dinah, but Helena can’t blame her, figuring she has to look ridiculous - here she is, the hardened assassin, who can kill with her bare hands, wheezing and tearing up from a single shot, probably red-faced, too.

“Just… not used to the strong stuff”, she admits, and Renee raises an eyebrow again, not making a comment though; Dinah shoots her a questioning look though, and she shrugs, feeling as if she should elaborate, even though she’s not sure why it would matter.

“They were big on wine, in Sicily”, she still says, “not so big on the shots.”

Thankfully, her eyes have stopped watering at this point, and the burning in her throat has lessened, too; Dinah nods in understanding, then makes a thoughtful face for a moment - before she declares she’ll be right back, bounces to her feet and hurries towards the bar, Helena blinking as she has no idea what to expect now.

“You better pace yourself then”, Renee advises, pulling the empty shotglass away from her as if it might magically refill when no one’s looking, “I don’t need you throwing up all over the table or something.”

“Please”, Helena says, rolling her eyes, “I know my limits.”

“If you’re not used to it, you don’t”, Renee corrects her, but before she can come up with an answer to that, Dinah comes back, and proudly presents a glass to her, filled with dark red wine, and she holds it as if it is some sort of holy grail.

“I pestered the barkeep”, she declares, “for some Italian wine. Can’t guarantee it really is, or that it will be any good, but it might still be better than vodka for you, so…”

She puts the glass down, and for a moment, Helena can only stare - she knows they are her friends, both Dinah and Renee are, and this is a small thing, really, just a drink she might enjoy, but still it’s a very nice thing to do, and for the past fifteen years, nice things have been rare in her life, even with how her adoptive fathers have cared for her. 

“Thank you”, she says, and hopes her voice doesn’t sound as touched as she feels, because that would mess with her image quite a bit; on the other hand though, Dinah has been there when she had to face the fact that she no longer has a mission, and nearly panicked, so certainly, some genuine gratitude can’t be worse than that. 

“Don’t thank me yet”, Dinah says as she sits down next to her again, and for a second, she is so close to her that their thighs touch, and it shoots an odd flash of heat through all of Helena’s body, “try it first. I have no idea if it’s any good.”

Helena halfway expects it to be awful - she seriously doubts that this little bar in Gotham serves decent Italian wine - but she does take a sip, and to her surprise, it’s not just okay, but actually good; and clearly, her appreciation shows on her face, as Dinah beams at her, then raises her fists in triumph, pleased with herself. 

“Yesss”, she then says, making Renee smirk while Helena takes her another sip of the wine, a slightly bigger one this time, “I did not bring her wine which tastes like dishwasher. Go me.”

“Go you, indeed”, Renee says, amused; Helena just gives her a small smile, but while it seems to be mostly a source of amusement for the other two, she truly is grateful, her smile even widening a bit when she takes another sip and lets the wine roll around on her tongue.

It’s not the exact wine they had back in Sicily, she can tell, but it’s close enough, and it makes her think of the times her adoptive fathers had let her have a glass, usually when she did amazing during training or after the first few jobs they had sent her on and which she had completed perfectly.

It’s close enough to remind her of Sicily, and of the men who’d taken her in and trained her, close enough to remind her of the closest thing she’s had to a home.

“It is really good”, she says, then takes another little sip, trying to savour it; Renee raises an eyebrow at that, then wants to know why she takes such tiny little sips if it’s good, but before she can answer, Dinah speaks up, shaking her head as she talks.

“Because you don’t gulp wine like that down like beer”, she says, wagging her finger at Renee for emphasis and making Helena smile again, “you sip it so you can taste it better. All classy and shit.”

“Not for me then”, Renee decides, and as if to underline those words, she takes a few big gulps of her beer; Dinah rolls her eyes, then laughs, and Helena finds herself smiling as well as she sips her wine.  
  
It reminds her of what she used to call her home, but perhaps, she ponders as she watches her friends, she has found a new home right here.


	10. Reputation

A few weeks go by, weeks during which the Birds of Prey go on more missions, and grow closer as a team; and not only that, but they also start garnering a reputation, Renee telling them one evening that the baddies and crimelords of Gotham are taking note of the trio more and more often causing trouble for them.

“All the more reason to make sure we don’t use our real names during the missions”, she reminds them, even though she’s the one who doesn’t use an alias, the way Helena and Dinah do, “I’m afraid they’ll figure out at some point who we are anyway, but we don’t need to make it too easy for them.”

“Says the woman whom we just have been calling  _ hey you _ so far”, Dinah teases, and Helena smirks; she’s found herself smiling a lot more in the past few weeks, Dinah usually being the one who causes them, and while Helena isn’t quite willing or perhaps ready to think about what this might mean, she enjoys it, anyway.

“Well, it works”, Renee shrugs, not appearing all too perturbed by her lack of alias; but then, Helena figures, she has been working for Gotham PD for years before she quit and they formed the team, so most criminals know who she is, anyway, and it’s mostly Dinah and she herself who need to protect their identities. 

“We must be doing something right though”, Dinah comments, sounding pleased, “if we are starting to make a name for ourselves. Even if we haven’t taken any of the big fish down.”

“Yet”, Helena adds, then shrugs when both look at her, not quite getting why they seem unable to follow her train of thought.

“What”, she thus says, “you think we won’t? I’m fairly sure we will. I’ve taken a bunch down on my own, with the three of us? No problem there.”

“Yes, you’re terrifying all on your own, that’s right”, Renee dryly says, and Helena shrugs again, she knows she can be, even though she’s felt much less angry all the time lately, another fact she doesn’t quite dare to think about, not yet, “but we shouldn’t get cocky, just because we took down a few guys. There’s still many out there, and many of them very dangerous.”

“Helena’s very dangerous, too”, Dinah says light-heartedly, as if she’s just made a comment about the weather, “so I think she’s right. We’ll take down a bigger fish sooner or later.”

“Well, I’m glad you two are so confident”, Renee dryly says, not really surprising either of them when she pulls a bunch of folders from the desk behind her - she has invited them to her home, after all, and she usually only does that when she has a new lead, “because there is something bigger coming up. Not a big fish, per se, perhaps a middle-sized fish.”

“Alright”, Dinah says, taking one of the files and handing the other one to Helena; they both leaf through them as Renee talks, explaining what’s in the file anyway, but it’s faster if she tells them than have them read all of it.

“His name’s Joey Mancini”, Renee says, and Helena frowns to herself as the name rings a bell, a very faint one, in the far back of her mind, but it does, she knows the guy wasn’t on her hit list - if he had been, he’d be dead by now, but he still sounds familiar, “human trafficker. And apparently, one who wants to close a big deal tomorrow. A big deal we will put an end to.”

“Hell yes we will”, Helena practically growls, and Dinah shoots her a surprised look - with what she has shown so far, she dislikes all criminals alike, but apparently, she has a special sort of hatred for that kind of thing, not that Dinah can blame her though. 

“It’s at a warehouse, because of course it is”, Renee continues, gesturing at the page of the file which holds more information on said warehouse, “an abandoned one, not far from that amusement park where we had our big fight.”

“How many abandoned warehouses does this city have?” Dinah wonders out loud, making Helena smirk, and even Renee’s mouth twitches; she doesn’t allow hereslf to get sidetracked though, but keeps talking, telling them everything she knows about Joey Mancini and his men.

“He’s got one guy we need to look out for especially”, she lets the other two know, holding up a photo of said man for emphasis, Helena raising an eyebrow - it shows the guy standing next to Mancini, and even though she doesn’t know how tall Mancini is, the guy looks huge in comparison, easily two heads taller than his boss, and twice as bulky, with arms the size of tree trunks. 

“Mancini calls him Goliath”, Renee continues, Dinah laughing when Helena mutters “I can see why” under her breath, “not sure if this is his real name or just an alias. He’s said to be freakishly big and strong, I’ve never seen him in real life, so I have no idea how much of this is fact and how much has been made up on the street.”

“We better take it at face value”, Helena suggests, she does think that some of it is exaggeration, but it’s better to be safe than sorry, “that way, if the stories are true, we are prepared, and if they are not, well, he’ll go down easier than expected then.”

“Good thinking”, Dinah nods at once, and as always when Dinah agrees with something she’s said, Helena feels oddly proud; she’s still not fully used to working in a team like this, to not being on her own anymore, but she likes to think she gets better at it every day, and these little moments are proof that she’s right. 

“So we better pack some extra firepower”, Renee suggests, and Helena makes a face, knowing comes next, “I got some firearms you can use, just to be on the safe side.”

“I don’t like guns”, Helena grumbles, as she does every time the topic of gun use comes up; and no one can blame her, she knows, not after what she witnessed when she was a child.

She doesn’t feel like curling up into a tiny ball and puking anymore whenever she hears a gunshot, but it still affects her, and she doubts it will ever stop. 

“I know”, Renee says, in a surprisingly gentle tone, and Dinah reaches over and briefly, but gently touches her arm; and even though Helena still feels dismayed at the thought of using guns, she manages a wry smile, knowing it’ll be fine with the two of them there.

_ It has to be _ , she tells herself, she knows that all three of them need to be at their best to handle this,  __ and it will be. You’re strong, you’re the Huntress, you can do this.  
  
Her eyes meet Dinah’s, and as they do, she can truly believe these things when she tells them to herself. 


	11. Big Guy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fighting, blood and injury in this chapter. But again nothing worse than in the movie I think? Also, the length of this chapter kinda got away from me as I wrote it, but then, so did this whole fic, sooo... :D

Helena doesn’t like guns, and still she carries one strapped to her hip now, like some sort of cowboy; and she can feel it hang there, unused to the weight, a heavy piece of metal she hopes she won’t have to use, but she knows she might end up without a choice, depending on what those guys are packing and on how much of the rumours on the street about the guy Goliath are true.

She knows she’s good at hand to hand, excellent, even, but if the stories turn out to not be exaggeration, she might be at her limits with the guy, and she enjoys the thought of going up against him and being outmatched even less than the idea of using a gun. 

And so, she tries to ignore how uneasy the weight of the gun on her hip makes her feel; Renee has borrowed her the holster, and it sits a bit looser than she would have liked, but she figures it’s going to be fine, and hopefully, it will just be this once anyway.

_ Not if you truly go after bigger fish now _ , Helena then realizes, forced to hold back a grimace - once more, she’s in the backseat of Renee’s car, and she doesn’t want Dinah or Renee to notice and to ask her what is going on,  _ then you’ll end up needing to use guns more often. So you better get used to them. _

She holds back a sigh, then takes in a slow, controlled breath, in an attempt to regain her calm; and as always, it works, her heartrate slows down and so does her racing mind, and by the time the warehouse appears up ahead, she feels ready to tackle whatever Mancini might throw at them. 

The name still rings a bell, Helena ponders as Renee parks at a safe distance from the warehouse, so the engine noise won’t be heard, but she forces those thoughts out of her mind, there is no time for them now - the mission counts now, and the mission is all that counts, until it is done.

“This time, we go in together”, Renee tells them as they all get out of the car, “we have no idea about their numbers, and I won’t let you walk in there alone, Huntress, if we have no idea how many of them there are. You go first though and we’ll follow.”

“Quietly”, Helena tells them, making them both nod; she figures that Renee won’t have trouble with being a sneaky, having been a cop and all, but Dinah, on the other hand, might not find it as easy, and suddenly there is an odd feeling in her gut, and she wonders if it is her instinct telling her that something is about to go wrong or if it’s something else.

_ Focus _ , she harshly tells herself as she gets moving, doing so soundlessly,  _ the mission is all that counts. Focus on that. _

Thankfully, Helena can barely hear the footsteps behind her, signalling that both Renee and Dinah are quiet, too; she makes sure to stay low, so no one can see her from the windows, dusty and old as they are, and moves closer to the warehouse quickly, briefly turning to look at Dinah and Renee as she gestures at a bunch of boxes stacked close to the wall, then up at the roof.

Helena is the first to climb up the boxes, and a daring jump lets her cling to the edge of the roof; she pulls herself up with ease, then turns to help up Dinah and Renee - neither of them are out of shape, she knows, but they’re not quite as fit as she herself is, and both are grateful for a helping hand.

She wonders what the way Dinah looks at her arms afterwards means, if it means anything, just for a second; then, she focuses on the mission again, the mission is all that matters, and moves to the nearest skylight of the warehouse’s roof, making sure to spread her weight evenly so she won’t end up falling through the roof.

Dinah and Renee stay right behind her, and they end up clustering around the skylight Helena has chosen, the one which appears to be cleanest and allows a somewhat good look into the area below.

“Good choice”, Renee whispers as a man in a white suit and with a hat comes into view, “that’s Mancini. Shit, cliché much, with the suit and the hat?”

“He’ll light a cigar up next”, Dinah whispers, and Helena finds herself smirking despite the serious situation; Dinah takes note, and winks at her, then they all look through the skylight again, watching how Mancini’s men form a protective half circle around him.

None of them can spot the big guy, but Helena isn’t sure if she shall be happy about this - after all, it might mean he is patrolling somewhere, or hidden out of sight, she somehow doubts that Mancini would go to such an important deal without his oversized bodyguard. 

They can hear the door to the warehouse open a moment later, the sound startlingly loud in the quiet night; and then another group of men enters, Helena counts seven of them, which puts the total of their targets up to fifteen, big guy not included as she still hasn’t spotted him. 

“That should be all of them”, Renee whispers, making the other two nod, “I can’t see the victims, but they must be around here somewhere. Ready? Big entrance?”

“Big entrance”, Helena agrees, it is risky, but it will buy them a few seconds of surprise, valuable time she knows she will make good use of. 

She comes to her feet, carefully, then crouches, her leg muscles tensing - before she jumps, as high as it’s possible without a running start, and comes down on the skylight feet first, the glass shattering beneath her weight and sending her right amongst the men, in a spray of wood and glass.

She hears several of them cry out in surprise as she elegantly lands, calf and thigh muscles absorbing most of the impact, but doesn’t pay attention to their shouts; instead, she swings the crossbow around, takes the blink of an eye to fire, and feels darkly satisfied when one of them goes down, a bolt protruding from his throat.

From the corner of her eye, Helena notices another man take a step closer, and swings her crossbow around, and nails him right in the face, a smirk curling her lips when he falls, clutching at his mouth which now has decidedly less teeth than it had a second ago.

Dinah and Renee come rushing down from the roof as well now, Renee pulling her gun a second after she has landed and firing, while Dinah has managed to jump so that she’s landed right on one of the bad guys, taking him out; a well-placed kick takes care of another one, and Helena’s mind registers it all, how many they have taken down and how many there are still left.

She also registers a rusty steel pipe about a foot away, left over from some project or delivery at the warehouse, and she immediately knows that it can be used as a weapon; it might shatter on impact, with all the rust, but it will still take one guy down, and a quick roll brings her close enough to it so she can grab it.

In one fluid motion, Helena takes hold of the pipe, ends up on one knee and swings it; she feels it connect more than she sees it, and hears a choked sort of gurgle, followed by a body hitting the ground, and knows another one has gone down.

For about a second, she gets to feel good about this flawlessly executed maneuver… and then the shadow falls over her, large and bulky, and before she can realize what is happening, hands the size of her head grab her and  _ throw  _ her, a startled yelp escaping her as she sails through the air until a stack of wooden boxes harshly stops her flight.

Her breath gets knocked out of her, and she feels some unfortunately sharp shaped piece of wood dig into her back; it doesn’t go deep though, she can tell, it hurts, but she’ll live, and for the moment, she ignores it, knowing it’ll only worsen the bleeding to pull it out.

As she struggles to get to her feet again, Dinah rushes the large man -  _ Goliath _ , Helena realizes,  _ this has to be that Goliath guy, Jesus, he truly is  _ huge _ , oh my God -  _ then jumps, kicking him in the chest with both feet; Helena can tell she hit him perfectly, a lesser man would have gone down and would have stayed down, the kick has been perfect.

Goliath doesn’t even stagger.

He snarls instead, and pulls a massive fist back and Helena’s heart  _ stops _ ; it only continues beating, painfully fast and hard, when Dinah ducks the punch, and Goliath roars in anger at the missed hit and sets after her when she tries to get some space between him and herself, the other men scattering, clearly afraid of him as well.

Some of them run right past her, so close that she could have grabbed them, but Helena doesn’t care, doesn’t even notice, because Goliath is going after Dinah, Dinah is in danger; she hears Renee fire a few shots after the fleeing guys, and remembers the gun on her own hip, but when she reaches for it, dislike be damned, it’s gone, it must have fallen out of the holster when that oversized man sent her flying.

Her crossbow has taken some damage too, she realizes a second later, and the bolts she always carries strapped to her upper thigh are bent or even broken; she figures they can still be used to hurt, but she doesn’t  _ know _ , and she has to know for this guy, she has to be sure, because she’ll only get one shot.

And so, Helena does the only thing she can think off; she takes off running, and as she runs, she reaches behind herself and yanks the sharp piece of wood from her back, she can feel a rush of blood down her back and leg, but doesn’t slow down, teeth grit both in rage and against the pain as she keeps running.

She runs until she is close enough, and then she leaps, landing on Goliath’s back, and rams the sharp piece of wood into his throat with all the strength she can bring up, right into his jugular, she hasn’t had much time to aim, but her aim is flawless, she has trained to always have the best aim she can have, and she doesn’t fail.

“Goliath!” she hears Mancini shout, with genuine distress in his voice, then the large man rears up in pain and throws her off, and she groans when she lands right on her injured back; she still doesn’t allow the pain to slow her down though, but practically springs to her feet again - causing another gush of blood - and brings her fist up, just in case Goliath still wants to put up a fight.

He’s staggering though, groping for the piece of wood which is protruding from his throat; and then he yanks it out, and the blood which shoots from the wound lets her own pale in comparison, it’s a flood of the stuff, and when he groans, it only seems to increase.

Then, he slowly sinks down to his knees, his movements weakening; and a few seconds later, he falls over and he’s dead, and Helena allows herself to relax. 

“This isn’t over!” Mancini shouts, and how cliché, Helena thinks, “I’ll get you for this, all of you!”

“Stop right there!” Renee shouts in response as Mancini takes off, and fires after him, but he’s smart enough to zig-zag, so she misses; and then, he’s gone, and it’s just the three of them and the bodies of the men they have taken down.

“Well”, Helena says, pain radiating from her back through her whole body at this point, and she morbidly wonders if she made it worse with yanking out the wood and then running and jumping the way she has, “that didn’t work out quite so well.”

And then she collapses, and the world goes dark, and the last thing she hears is Dinah calling out her name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *joins the "Helena gets injured so Dinah can take care of her" club* O:-)


	12. Stitches

When Helena comes back around, she realizes she can’t have been out for long, because Dinah and Renee are carrying her to Renee’s car; Renee has grabbed her feet, and Dinah holds her beneath the armpits, so it’s her who realizes it when Helena wakes up again.

“She’s awake!” she cries out, and thankfully, Renee doesn’t try to turn and look, only lets out a vaguely agreeing noise; she regrets now that the car has been parked so far from the warehouse, because Helena is heavier than she looks, but then Renee figures she shouldn’t be surprised, after all, Helena has been unconscious and pretty much dead weight.

“Don’t you dare move”, Dinah says before Helena can do as much as open her mouth to tell them she can walk on her own now, “we’re almost at the car.”

Helena has seen that look on Dina’s face before and knows better than to argue, so she says nothing and lets them carry her the rest of the way; and this time, Dinah doesn’t get in the passenger seat as usual, but sits next to her in the back, apparently planning to keep an eye on her during the drive.

“It’s not that bad”, Helena tries to calm her down, not liking it to see her so worried, “really, I’m fine. How would they say in the 80s shows Renee likes so much? Just a flesh wound.”

“Leave my shows be”, Renee says at once, her standard reaction whenever one of them teases her about her cop shows, “and while that is what they might say, you’ve bled a shitton, and this needs stitches, flesh wound or not.”

“I’m not sure shitton of blood is a proper medical term”, Helena mumbles, and while this time, she has tried to make a joke, it falls flat, neither Renee, nor Dinah laughing; she can feel said blood though, sticky on her back and thighs, and it does feel like quite a bit, so she figures Renee isn’t exaggerating. 

“No hospital”, she adds, just to be on the safe side, “I hate hospitals.”

“Figures”, Renee murmurs under her breath, but loud enough that Helena can hear, and she scowls, “but no worries there, Crossbow, I can stitch you up. Won’t be as pretty as if a doc did it, but beggars can’t be choosers.”

“Thank you”, Helena says with a small sigh, deciding to not mention the disliked nickname so she won’t risk Renee taking her to the hospital after all; and while Renee herself apparently hasn’t noticed she has used it again, Dinah has, giving Helena an amused look and briefly touching her arm, managing to get a weak smile from her. 

Apparently, some sort of shock response is fading now, because she can feel the pain again, and manages to bite back a grimace in the last second, not wanting the others to notice; she’s out of luck though, as Dinah of course notices it immediately, and gives her a strict look.

“It would help if you’d sit still, you know”, she scolds, and Helena feels her cheeks heat up, “and don’t give me any shit about how you are perfectly fine now. You passed out, Helena, that’s not perfectly fine.”

Wisely, Helena keeps her mouth shut, even though part of her wants to protest and tell her that she truly is fine - the injury hurts, but she’s had worse, much worse, as the scars littering her body show, but another, bigger and probably smarter part tells her that this is not what Dinah wants to hear right now and that she better keep this bit of Helena Bertinelli trivia to herself. 

She tries hard to sit still, too, and does that make the pain a bit more bearable; and Dinah insists on not letting her walk on her own once they have reached Renee’s place, supporting her with one arm across her waist, and their bodies end up close together as Helena involuntarily leans on her, sending flashes of heat which have nothing to do with her injury through her.

She’s not quite sure what to feel by the time they arrive at Renee’s apartment door - it is nice to be so close to Dinah, but on the other hand, it makes her feel things she certainly doesn’t want to think about for the moment, and so, she decides to be relieved when Renee unlocks the door, ushers them inside and she ends up face down on the couch so the ex-cop can take care of her wound.

Figuring that the shirt is ruined anyway, what with the hole in it and the blood, Renee doesn’t bother with carefully removing it, but simply rips it open, and from how Helena hears Dinah pull in a sharp breath, she figures it has to look quite unpleasant.

“Jeez”, Dinah says, moving so that she is in front of Helena’s face and can look at her, “how are you awake right now? This looks like you should have passed out again ten times at this point, if not from blood loss, then from the pain.”

Helena just shrugs, and that sends a twinge through her back, but not the smallest muscle in her face reacts to it; she truly has has worse, and this barely bothers her, even though she knows that might change one Renee starts stitching her up.

“She’s a tough cookie”, Renee answers verbally for her, “which is why I’m fine with doing this here. Dinah, make sure she doesn’t try to get up and get a good look at it or something while I get everything.”

“Sure thing”, Dinah says at once, and immediately gives Helena a strict look when she shifts on the couch as Renee’s footsteps move away, the taller woman grimacing at the glare she’s receiving.

“I’m just trying to get more comfortable”, she defends herself, “this couch must be as old as the cop shows Renee likes watching.”

At least this time, the deliberate joke works, because Dinah lets out a snort of laughter; she still tells Helena afterwards to hold still, but she stops glaring, and Helena figures that this has to be worth something. 

“I heard that!” Renee shouts from some other room, and Helena makes a face, earning another giggle from Dinah; and not long after, Renee comes back, carrying a bottle of disinfectant, a first aid kit and, to Dinah’s surprise and concern, a bottle of whisky.

“Please tell me that is not for you”, she says with a sigh, and Helena fights the urge to turn her head to see what she is talking about, knowing she will get glared at again if she does; Renee shakes her head, then tells Dinah it’s not for her, but for Helena, and holds the bottle out to the younger woman, earning a confused look in reply.

“Drink”, Renee says, as if that would clarify much, sighing and elaborating when now both Helena and Dinah look at her in confusion, “I have no proper painkillers here, just Aspirin. This will do more against the pain than the pills I have here will, especially since you’re not used to it.”   


“Fine”, Helena sighs, figuring this is better than nothing; she takes the bottle and props herself up on one arm so she can take a sip, Renee shaking her head at once and telling her to take a bigger gulp, so it will have an immediate effect.

“Keep in mind that she’s lost quite a bit of blood”, Dinah says, worried again, while Helena brings the bottle to her lips again, taking a proper gulp this time; it tastes disgusting, and it burns in her throat worse than the vodka did, but apparently, Renee is right, because she starts to feel woozy already and the pain is lessening.

“Okay, you got enough”, Dinah decides in the same second, takes the bottle and puts it on the table out of reach, “you’re already getting that look Renee usually gets after about a whole bottle of this stuff. How are you feeling?”

“Better”, Helena slurs, part of her registering the slur in her voice and being mortified at it, but another, bigger part is drowning in whisky right this second and doesn’t care, “hurts less. Yay.”

“Things I never thought I would hear Huntress say”, Renee comments, “yay. It’s small, but so important. Dinah, hold her down. Helena, bite down on this.”

“No need to hold”, Helena mumbles, feeling tired now, and if she had been less drunk, she would have been amazed at how fast the alcohol is actually kicking in, “I’m fine, I tell you.” She still obediently bites into the wad of cloth Renee is waving in front of her face, but quite sure she won’t need it, she has been hurt before, and she’s always handled it well. 

Renee just sighs - before she tips the bottle of disinfectant over, and lets a generous amount of it splash over the wound, and Helena’s world whitens out.

She feels Dinah pressing her down as she instinctively tries to rear up, keeping her from moving too much and making the wound even worse; the cloth in her mouth is muffling her screaming, but even over her own screams, she can hear Dinah whisper to her, somewhat frantic, but somehow soothing at the same time, an odd contrast.

“Shhh, shhh”, Dina lets out, her grip on Helena loosening a bit as the taller woman stops straining against her hold, “it’s okay, it’s okay, it’ll be fine…”

The pain lessens again, thankfully… but only for about a second, because then Renee starts stitching, and Helena seriously doubts that the whisky is doing its job, with how much it hurts.

Involuntarily, tears fill her eyes, a simple reaction of her body she couldn’t have stopped if she had wanted to, but she’s smart and aware enough to not try straining against Dinah’s hold anymore; and the second Dinah notices this, she wraps both arms around her the best she can with their positions, Helena face down on the couch and Dinah kneeling next to her, giving some her comfort as Renee works as quickly as she can.

The wad of cloth in her mouth keeps Helena from cursing, and she’s fairly certain she’ll rip the fabric of Renee’s couch any second, with how tightly her fingers are grasping it; Dinah keeps her arms around her though, and keeps mumbling calming words into her ear, and somehow, that makes the pain bearable, and allows her to hold on and to not pass out again until finally, blessedly, Renee is done.


	13. Rest

“You are not going to your motel tonight”, Dinah says a while later, as she steers Helena to where she’s parked her car, “you lost a lot of blood, you’ve passed out, I’m not letting you out of my sight tonight. You’re coming home with me.”

“Okay”, Helena says at once, getting into the passenger seat slowly, not wanting to move around too much and not wanting to put too much pressure on the freshly stitched wound; Renee has bandaged her up of course before they left, but the last thing she needs now is the stitches breaking open again. 

“Okay?” Dinah repeats, blinking, clearly taken aback, then raising an eyebrow before she gets into the car as well, looking at Helena after she’s started the engine, “not to be rude, but I expected more resistance than that. Are you still drunk, Huntress?”

“No”, Helena sighs, moving slower than usual as she puts on the seatbelt, “I think I sweated most of that out again when Renee did the stitches. You’re right, I did lose quite a bit of blood, and I did pass out. Not smart to be alone then, I doubt I will faint again, but it could happen.”

This was one of the first lessons she’s been taught, when her training began in Sicily;  _ you can get hurt,  _ she’s been told,  _ you can get hurt, and you most likely will get hurt. Try to have someone there after if it happens. Someone you trust. _

For a long time, she hasn’t had anyone around she can trust, and she hasn’t exactly stuck to the advice her adoptive dads had given her, often having been alone even after suffering some injury or other; now though, she knows she has someone she can trust, she trusts Dinah with her life and knows Dinah will look out for her during the night, would look out for her even longer than that if necessary.

“Smart”, Dinah comments, focusing on the road now so they won’t end up in a car crash on top of the other things which have gone wrong this day, “and good, no need to argue about this then. And you’ll get the bed tonight, I’ll be fine on the couch.”

“What”, Helena does protest this time, not surprising Dinah the slightest, “no. I’m not that badly hurt, really, it barely hurts anymore.”

“You are still hurt”, Dinah strictly says at once, even taking her eyes off the road for a moment to glare at her, “and I’m not. You sleep in the bed. End of discussion.”

“Okay, alright, fine”, Helena says at once, not bothering to argue back - not after that glare, she really doesn’t like being at the receiving end of that glare, and she’d rather ban Dinah to her own couch than receive it for a second time, “jeez, you win. You get to sleep on your couch. Happy now?”

“Yes”, Dinah says happily, “very. And my couch is comfy. As you know.”

“It is”, Helena agrees with a sigh, “but I imagine your bed is… comfier? More comfy? Well, better than the couch, either way.”

“End of discussion”, Dinah repeats her previous statement, and Helena just sighs, sinking back into the seat; she regrets this at once, as it puts more pressure on the wound than she’s realized, but she’s regained enough self control to not let the pain show.

Dinah keeps her focus on the road now, and so probably doesn’t notice anything either; the rest of the ride happens in silence, but it’s not an uncomfortable one, and by the time they are close to Dinah’s apartment building, Helena is struggling to keep her eyes open, the day’s events taking their toll on her now as tiredness sets in.

“Almost there”, Dinah tells her as she searches for a parking spot, having noticed how Helena suddenly struggles to keeps her eyes open; fortunately, she doesn’t need to look for long, Helena yawning heartily once the car has been parked and they both get out of it.

“Come on”, the singer adds as she sees Helena sway a tiny bit on her feet, anyone else might have missed it, but she doesn’t, and so, she moves closer to her and puts one arm around her waist again, “just a few steps now, then you can sleep.”

“I’m fine”, Helena mumbles, but looks as if she is about to fall asleep on her feet, so Dinah doesn’t even dignify that with an answer; she just rolls her eyes, then leads the way, making sure Helena stays on her feet with her support as they walk up the stairs to her apartment together.

“There we go”, Dinah says, managing to dig out her keys and unlock the door without having to let go of Helena, “and straight to bed you go, come on.”

She leads the way to her bedroom, and Helena remembers in the last second to not just flop down onto the bed, but to lie down slowly, and even that makes the injury twinge, once more forcing her to bite back a grimace.

She forgets all about the pain though when Dinah kneels down next to the bed and starts to unlace her boots, as if that’s the most normal thing in the world to do.

“Hey”, she tries to protest, but Dinah seems unimpressed, not even looking up at her, “I can do that on my own, you don’t have to…”

“I want to”, Dinah tells her, and a second later, her left boot comes off, followed by her right; and another moment later, Helena is mortified as Dinah gets up and bends over her, reaching for her belt.

“No no no”, she hurriedly says, fighting the urge to bat her hands away, “ _ that _ I can do myself, thank you very much.”

At least, Dinah doesn’t try to argue this time, but simply nods and pulls back; and even though it sends flashes of pain through her body again, Helena pulls off her pants and then what is left of her shirt, too, shrugging and nodding when Dinah asks if she can throw that out.

“Good”, Dinah states, wrinkling her nose at the bloodied and torn garment, “and now get some sleep. Call out in case you need anything, I’ll be right in the next room.”

“Okay”, Helena mumbles, eyes already falling close; she still registers how Dinah touches her hand and says something about how she should get well again, then her footsteps moving away, out of the room, and two seconds later, she’s fast asleep, sleeping deep and dreamlessly.


	14. Morning, Again

Helena wakes in the next morning to the scent of freshly brewed coffee and what appears to be ham and eggs, and her stomach rumbles in response; thankfully, her back barely hurts anymore as well, not even when she gets out of bed, just a tiny twinge which is easily ignored.

Careful, Helena stands up straight next to the bed, then slowly stretches, satisfied when this doesn’t cause much more pain; belatedly, she realizes that she’s only wearing her bra and boxers, but she also remembers that her shirt has ended up in Dinah’s trashcan the previous night, holding back a sigh as she realizes she hasn’t thought of bringing a spare.

Not that it matters much, she ponders as she looks at her pants, grimacing at the blood which has dried on them and has made the fabric stiff, after all, Dinah already has seen her in her underwear the previous night; and so, even though she usually doesn’t like it to walk around so exposed, Helena steels herself and leaves the bedroom.

She can hear Dinah putter around in the kitchen, and this is where she goes; for a moment, she feels exposed and oddly vulnerable, then tells herself not to be stupid, this is Dinah, her teammate and her friend, and certainly, this is in some weird way part of a friendship, especially if the friends in question are fighting crime together. 

She steps into the kitchen, and Dinah turns to face her, and from one moment to the next, Helena forgets all concerns about how this might be inappropriate.

Helena hasn’t had much time for anything but her mission in the past fifteen years, but even she can tell that the way Dinah looks at her as she stands there in her underwear is pure appreciation, perhaps even a bit of lust, and she feels her cheeks heat up, not quite used to being looked at like this.

“Um”, Dinah lets out, and while Helena still feels awkward at being looked at this way, the fact that Dinah is pretty much rendered speechless makes it quite a bit better, “uh, I mean. Good morning.”

“Morning”, Helena says, and while usually, she’s quite in control of her features - when she’s not too angry to care, that is - she can’t hold back a slightly smug smirk this time; Dinah colours at this, and clears her throat, the way she now appears awkward only making Helena’s smirk widen. 

“I see you’re better”, Dinah finally regains her wits at least enough to be capable of full sentences, “I’m making breakfast, you want a shower first? I’ll find you something to wear, I think I have a black shirt somewhere.”

“Sounds good”, Helena says, she is hungry, but on the other hand, there’s still dried blood on parts of her body, and she doesn’t want to sit at Dinah’s table like this and in her underwear; and so, she heads off towards the bathroom, nodding when Dinah tells her to be careful about the wound and that she’ll put the shirt for her into the washbasin.

Once she’s alone in the bathroom, Helena carefully peels off the bandage and tries to get a look at the wound in the mirror; from what she can tell, Renee did a good job stitching her up, and while she’ll have to be careful for a few days, she’ll be good as new soon, just with one more scar on her body.

She doubts it will be very noticeable, with all the others she has acquired over the years; she doesn’t linger on any of them though, but turns away from the mirror and steps into the shower, trying hard to not let too much water run over the injury as she cleans up.

As she washes off the grime and blood of the previous night - and feeling a bit bad because she slept in Dinah’s bed all dirty - Helena thinks back to the way Dinah has looked at her minutes ago; it also makes her think about other things, the way she seems to feel so much less angry when Dinah is around, the way her smiles come so much easier when she’s near the other woman.

And she thinks back to the previous evening, to the fear she has felt when she’s seen that freakishly huge guy go after Dinah, and how she’s forgotten everything but the need to make sure Dinah will be fine and safe.

She has been taught that her mission always,  _ always _ has to come first, no matter what; but this time, she has broken this rule, she’s forgotten all about the mission the moment she has seen Dinah in danger.

Helena wonders what her adoptive dads would say about that - they’ve trained her thinking she would always work alone, and certainly haven’t expected her to end up as part of a vigilante group fighting for justice, she remembers their surprise when she’s told them on the phone, and they haven’t said anything back then about how the rules might change in this case.

_ Well, no surprise there _ , she thinks to herself as she gets done cleaning up and steps out of the shower, glad to find a shirt in the basin as Dinah has promised, but a bit miffed that she has been so deep in thought she hasn’t even heard her enter,  _ they hardly ever work together. Of course they have no rules for that. _

She towels her hair dry and studies herself in the mirror as she does so, wondering if she has to make up her own rules now that she’s part of a team; she has seen last night that  _ the mission comes first _ doesn’t work, not as part of a team, and she might have to readjust to this, figuring though that she has done a good job so far - after all, she has gone to help Dinah when Goliath was after her, instead of just ignoring it, as pre-Birds of Prey Helena might have. 

Making her own rules sounds like a good idea, and she smiles to herself, feeling as if she has made an important decision; and now that this has been settled, she feels good and confident, even humming to herself as she pulls on the shirt Dinah has given her - black, as she has promised, a bit wide and at the same time short for her, but she doesn’t let that bother - before she leaves the bathroom, dressed in shirt and boxers now, figuring that she can wait with putting on the bloodied pants until the last possible moment.

Dinah is just getting done with making breakfast, Helena can tell, moving ham and eggs from a comically large frying pan onto two plates she has readied; there’s toast too, and coffee, and Helena finds herself smiling, her smile widening when Dinah looks at her and their eyes meet.

“Good timing”, Dinah says, and then her eyes flicker down to Helena’s legs, just for a second, someone else might have missed it, but Helena doesn’t, “food just got done. And once we ate, I’ll bandage you up again, alright?”

Helena nods as she sits, carefully now, once again aware of her stitches; Dinah gives her another smile, then pours her some coffee, and it feels oddly normal, domestic, almost, and it makes Helena feel warm and happy inside, as she always does when Dinah is around.

And after how she has noticed the way Dinah has looked at her, she’s not quite sure she can ignore her own feelings much longer.


	15. Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, two weeks ago: I will just write this one-shot to get it out of my brain.  
> Me, now: *is done with this fic at 26 chapters and 33,5 k words*and has an idea for another one* ...oh, well.  
> Enjoy ;)

For a while, they just sit there eating in silence, Helena shovelling the food into her mouth quite a bit faster than it’s probably proper; Dinah eats slower, doesn’t seem to mind Helena’s speed though, an oddly soft smile curling her lips as she watches her eat.

“Well”, she finally breaks the silence, making Helena look up at her, her cheeks puffed out slightly with food, the sight forcing Dinah to hold back a giggle, “I wasn’t sure this would be any good, but apparently, it is. Watching you wolfing it down, that’s a good sign.”

Helena takes the time to chew and swallow before she nods, then says “it’s very good”; Dinah smiles again, leaning back in her chair comfortably, her voice perfectly pleasant when she speaks up again, her tone not quite matching her words.

“Good”, she says, “cause now you are relaxed and busy eating, so I can scold you.”

“Scold me”, Helena repeats, eyebrows shooting up towards her hairline, “scold me for what?”

“I saw what you did”, Dinah tells her, giving her a strict look, “you yanked that piece of wood out of you own back to stab that guy with it!”

“It was the closest thing at hand”, Helena shrugs, earning another hard look from Dinah, “my crossbow got damaged and the bolts, too. And I’d lost Renee’s gun.”

“Oh, she won’t be happy about that”, Dinah says with a grimace, “but we did bring your crossbow, I grabbed it after you passed out. It’s probably still in Renee’s car, I figured you wouldn’t want to lose it.”

“Thank you”, Helena sighs at once, relieved - she could have gotten a replacement from Sicily, she knows, but the crossbow has some sort of emotional value, and she hates the thought of losing it for good, “I really appreciate that. And, well, I really appreciate you, which is why I grabbed what I had to stab that guy.”

“Well”, Dinah says with a sigh of her own, “I’m grateful, really, because it felt like I was kicking rock when I kicked that guy, so I’m very aware you saved my ass. Still, if you ever have to do that again, and there is some sort of potential stabby weapon stuck somewhere in your body, please do not yank it out again.”

“That was very specific”, Helena points out, smirking, glad when Dinah smiles as well after a moment; then, the singer reaches over the table and places her hand on Helena’s, not just touching her briefly this time, but leaving it there, her gaze softening as she holds eye contact with the other woman. 

“Seriously though, Helena”, she says, and Helena finds it impossible to look away, “I care about you, and I got really scared when you just passed out last night. Try not to do that again?”

All at once, there is a thick lump in Helena’s throat, and she finds herself unable to respond verbally; and so, she just nods, then swallows heavily, feeling weak and pathetic, but clearly, Dinah doesn’t think so, as she gives her a smile, then squeezes her hand, sending a jolt up her arm and down her spine.

Without fully realizing she is doing it, Helena moves her thumb so she can run it over the other woman’s hand, and she wonders if she’s imagined the sharp intake of breath from Dina or if it really has happened; Dinah doesn’t pull back though, and neither does Helena, suddenly realizing how long it has been since someone has touched her so gently. 

“Thank you”, she blurts out, before she can stop herself and bite the words back, “for… for caring.”

“Of course I care”, Dinah says at once, making the taller woman smile slightly, “come on, you’re my friend. And what sort of shitty person would I be if I didn’t care for the woman who yanks sharp pieces of wood out of her own back so she can stab people?”

“One piece”, Helena corrects her, noting how Dinah doesn’t pull her hand back, but not wanting to do so, either, “and I stabbed one people with it. One person.”

“As if you wouldn’t have stabbed more, had it been necessary”, Dinah replies with a roll of her eyes, smiling when Helena lets out a snort; she recovers quickly, before it can turn into full blown giggles, and shrugs, this time easily ignoring the twinge of pain this causes. 

“Honestly though”, she says, once more talking before she can think about it too much and perhaps stop herself, “I mean it, thank you. My adoptive fathers were… nice and caring enough, considering who they are and what they do, but… before Renee and you, I’ve never had a real friend so…”

This makes Dinah wonder what else Helena might have missed out on in her life so far, but she knows better than to just ask - Helena doesn’t often talk about her past, and when she does, it’s just tiny bits of information, like what she just revealed, and the one time Renee has made the mistake to ask her for more details, she has clammed up immediately, Dinah determined to not repeat this mistake.

So, she says nothing, just smiles slightly and squeezes Helena’s hand again; then, she finally does pull back, and immediately, Helena’s skin feels unpleasantly cold where Dinah has been touching her a minute ago.

“So”, the singer says, in a light tone, as if they hadn’t just had a touching moment, “what’s the plan for today? And please don’t say now you want to go after Mancini, at least let that ouchie heal a little bit before you get into another fight.”

“Yeah, not planning that”, Helena reassures, and Dinah lets out an exaggerated sigh of relief which makes her smirk again, “I’ll probably just grab my crossbow from Renee, apologize for losing her gun and then see if I can get the crossbow fixed. And maybe see if I can find a place which is not a dingy motel room, I’m getting a bit sick of it and I can afford a better place now so...”

“Sounds like a plan”, Dinah nods, mostly glad that Helena has no weird ideas about going after Mancini on her own, “and you do know you’ll need to have a housewarming party if you get a new place, right? It’s a friendship rule.”

“Is it”, Helena says, smiling slightly again, “well, I guess I’ll just have to believe that, I mean, you do know more about this than I do.”

“Yes”, Dinah solemnly says, nodding for emphasis, Helena’s smile involuntarily widening, “I am an expert, really, so you better believe everything I say.”

Helena finds herself snorting laughter at this, and Dinah smirks as well, winking at her; and for a few moments, Helena forgets all about her wound and the gangster still out there eager to find and kill them as she feels happy and content, glad to have found people she can call her friends now, after the years she has spent alone.


	16. Errands

Once she leaves Dinah’s apartment, Helena first heads to her motel - riding on her bike makes her injury somewhat unhappy and aching, but she ignores this in favour of getting to her temporary home - and changes into fresh clothes; the pants are too messed up with dried blood to be saved, and she tosses them with a heavy heart, having worn them on many a mission the past years. 

Still she knows when to try salvaging something and when to give up, and the pants are certainly part of the latter category; and as she puts on fresh clothing, Helena makes sure it doesn’t sit too tight, not wanting any unnecessary pressure on the wound, figuring that wouldn’t be good even with the fresh bandage Dinah put on her before she’d left her home. 

Once she’s presentable, Helena heads out again, aware that she moves a bit slower than usual, but unable to help herself; she’s playing it tough whenever someone is around to see her, but her injury does hurt, and the thought of fighting again makes her want to grimace, as she is fairly certain that fighting won’t exactly be helpful for the healing process. 

Still her walk is brisk as she leaves the motel room and walks back to her bike; on the way, she texts Renee to ask if it’s okay for her to drop by and to pick up her crossbow, having learned lately that it is considered rude to just show up at someone’s home without making sure the person actually is home and ready for a visit first.

_ Sure drop by _ , Renee’s answer comes at once, and Helena smiles to herself, glad she’ll get her crossbow back so fast; she hopes it hasn’t been damaged too badly and that it can be fixed as she gets into her bike and starts the engine. 

The drive to Renee’s place isn’t far, but she enjoys it, she always has loved driving her bike, from the very first second on she’s sat on it; she loves the speed it can reach, the way she can weave through traffic with it as she does now, getting to her goal much faster than she would have in a car.

When Helena reaches Renee’s apartment building, she notices the black car parked in front of it, and immediately, alarm bells go off in her mind, even though she can’t quite say why.

Perhaps it’s the fact that the car looks so out of place, relatively new and luxurious compared to the other vehicles around it; and maybe it’s also the fact that, even though this car clearly doesn’t belong here, nobody has touched it, nobody has tried to break into it and nobody has taken the expensive looking tires.

It’s as if people are afraid to touch it, and that idea only makes the alarm bells in Helena’s mind ring louder.

Over the years, she has learned to trust her instincts, and she doesn’t doubt them now, either; she has no weapon at hand, cursing herself for her lack of foresight to at least bring a knife - but then, she hasn’t been expecting a fight, all she wants is to get her crossbow and maybe find another place to stay.

_ You don’t need a weapon,  _ she then reminds herself, flexing her fingers, glad she has thought at least of putting on her gloves, the metal plates worked into them will protect her knuckles in case she’ll have to punch someone,  _ because you  _ are  _ a weapon, and you know it. _

She takes in a slow, controlled breath, then pushes the building’s front door open and moves up the stairs, as soundlessly as possible; for a moment, she considers to just barging into Renee’s apartment, moment of surprise and all, then decides against it - if she is wrong, and everything is fine, she’ll only scare the crap out of Renee, and if she’s right, and someone is in there who shouldn’t be, they still won’t expect her to be aware of it, and will still be surprised if she reacts immediately and accordingly.

So, Helena allows herself another breath, and empties her mind, her body tensing as she gets ready to move within the blink of an eye; and then, she raises her hand and knocks, holding her breath as she listens for suspicious noise from behind the door afterwards.

She hears footsteps approach - too heavy to be Renee’s, even if she’d have boots on, they wouldn’t sound like that - then the door opens; the man behind it already has his gun up, but hesitates when he sees no one there, and that is when Helena steps into view again and swiftly punches him in the face.

He staggers back, yelping, and Helena moves after him right away, grabbing the hand holding the pistol and twisting his wrist; he yelps again as he loses his grip on the gun, and Helena deftly catches it with her other hand, not shooting him, but whacking him across the face instead, sending him down to the ground.

From the corner of her eye, she sees movement, and spins around; the man who has been trying to sneak up at her takes a step back, she registers, and that is good, it means he is afraid of her, and fear is what causes people to make mistakes.

Helena is not afraid of him, and she doesn’t make a mistake, she shoots forwards and tackles him to the ground before he can do more than realize that their plan to ambush her has gone wrong, two quick punches to his face taking him out as well, the gun still in her hand when she springs back to her feet and looks around, not quite sure if there is a third or even a fourth guy.

“Renee?” she calls out after a second when nobody else tries to attack her; she hears nothing for a few moments, then, oddly enough, noise above her, from the ceiling - and a moment later, one of the ceiling tiles moves aside and Renee pokes her head out, and Helena can only blink.

“What”, she starts, raising an eyebrow as Renee looks back at her, as if this is the most normal thing in the world, “are you doing up there?”

“I hid”, Renee explains, lowering herself from the hole in the ceiling and landing next to the still baffled Helena, “I got lucky, I saw the car pull up and immediately knew it’s Mancini’s guys. I didn’t know how many there were gonna be though, so I hid, and while they were still searching for me, you arrived.”

“So you texted me?” Helena wants to know, raising an eyebrow, “you couldn’t have warned me there’s goons in your home?”

Renee points at the phone lying on the little table next to the door in response, and Helena lets out an “oh” as she realizes it hasn’t been Renee, but one of the guys, in an attempt to lure her into a trap.

“Damn”, she adds, shaking her head, “good thing we both noticed the car, or we’d be dead by now. I better call Dinah, let her know what happened, just so she’ll be on the lookout.”

She pulls out her own phone and speed-dials Dinah - Dinah’s on one, and Renee’s on two, her adoptive fathers having been moved to three, four and five -, tapping her foot as she holds it to her ear; and again the alarm bells start ringing when Dinah doesn’t answer.

They’ve known who she was when she’d texted Renee, she realizes, and they know where Renee lives… and perhaps, they are at the motel right now, looking for her.

Or perhaps they are at Dinah’s place, hurting her, doing God knows what to her.

“Shit”, she lets out, ending the call and stuffing the phone back into her pocket, “she’s not answering. I’m going back there. You stay here with those guys.”

She’s out the door before Renee can answer, the smaller woman only having the chance to blink; in a flash, Helena rushes down the stairs and out the building, practically jumping onto her bike without slowing down, the engine roaring to life a second later and she speeds down the road.

She feels the old, well-known rage burn within her at the thought of any of Mancini’s goons laying a single finger on Dinah, and she lets it burn now, feeds it even, because her rage will give her strength, will make her faster and stronger than any of them, and will make her feel less pain.

_ Any of you touched her, _ she vows to herself as she drives as fast as the bike and the traffic let her,  _ and you’ll die screaming. _

She speeds up even further, driving at dangerous speeds now, but not caring that she endangers herself; all she can think of is the fact that Dinah might be in danger, and that she has to get there fast, before it might be too late.


	17. Realization

Helena gets several confused and curious looks when she comes to a screeching halt in front of Dinah’s building, but couldn’t have cared less; the second the bike stands still, she hops off and rushes into the building, only remembering to slow down when she realizes how much noise she is making.

It’s hard to not run up the stairs, but that would alert possible intruders, and so, Helena forces herself so move slower, and as quietly as possible; this time, she doesn’t bother knocking - it worked with the guys at Renee’s place, but they’d known she was coming, and she wants any possible intruders in Dinah’s home to not have an idea until it’s too late for them.

Thankfully, how to kick in doors has been part of her training, and she’s done so to doors sturdier than the one of Dinah’s apartment; one hard kick against the wood close to the lock is enough to have it spring open, and Helena rushes into the apartment, fists up, ready to fight.

All she finds is Dinah, in a towel and drying her hair - again - and staring at her with wide eyes, the way she takes in a sharp breath showing that she is ready to unleash her cry before she realizes who it is and closes her mouth again, blinking in confusion.

“Helena”, she says, then falls silent, clearly not having an idea what is going on; and before Helena realizes what she is doing, she is moving, relief washing over her at finding Dinah alive and well, and pulls the surprised woman into a tight hug.

“Oh”, she lets out, needing a moment to react and actually return the embrace, still not having an idea what is going on, “Helena? Are you okay, what’s going on?”

“You’re okay”, Helena says in response, and the audible tremble in her voice freaks Dinah out even more than the unexpected hug has; she feels Helena squeeze her, as if to make sure she’s real, then the taller woman seems to regain some self control, as she lets go of her and takes a step back. 

“Of course I am”, Dinah tells her, heart racing in her chest from both the scare and the unexpected tight hug - and boy, was it tight, she ponders, Helena really does have impressive arms, “why wouldn’t I be? Wait, are you okay? Is Renee?”

“Yes, and yes”, Helena sighs, now a bit embarrassed about her outburst, but Dinah doesn’t look as if she’s minding much, even smiling slightly now, “but she very nearly wasn’t, there were goons sent by Mancini at her apartment when I got there, trying to lure me in, too. So I called you to warn you, and you didn’t answer so I thought…”

“Oh”, Dinah lets out, making a face as she realizes how this has all come together rather unfortunately, “yeah, I saw that you’d called me, I’d been in the shower, and when I called back, you didn’t answer.”

At this, Helena frowns, then pulls her phone from her pocket, surprised to see she does have a missed call from Dinah; apparently, she neither heard it, nor felt it vibrate against her leg when she’s been speeding to the singer’s home, and now she feels awkward, making a huge heroic entrance for no reason. 

“I… guess I must have missed that, must have been when I was driving here”, she admits, feeling her cheeks heat up, “uhm… sorry. About barging in like that. And, um, about your door. I’ll pay for it, of course.”

_ And for randomly hugging you out of nowhere and squeezing you like play dough _ , she mentally adds, but doesn’t say out loud; to her relief, Dinah doesn’t seem angry though, merely smiling at her, not appearing upset the slightest. 

“No worries”, Dinah tells her, confirming her impression that she isn’t mad, “I can imagine worse things than the Huntress rushing to my rescue. Even when I’m not in danger.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re okay”, Helena says, still feeling awkward and as if she overreacted, but thankfully, the feeling is lessening, “and that I didn’t surprise nasty men with guns in here, like at Renee’s place.”

“Let me guess”, Dinah gives back, gesturing at the couch and inviting her to sit down, something Helena gladly does, even though she still feels a bit awkward, “you took them out in about two seconds. Probably used their own guns against them, too.”

“...pretty much, yeah”, Helena confirms, and Dinah laughs, the sound making her feel warm inside again, but not from awkwardness this time; she shifts a bit on the couch, not quite comfortable yet anyway, and clears her throat, but before she can say anything, Dinah gestures at her towel-wearing self, and lets her know she’ll just quickly change into clothes more appropriate for entertaining a guest, Helena having a second to nod before the other woman vanishes into her bedroom.

Holding back a sigh, as she doesn’t want to attract Dinah’s attention again, Helena lets her head drop back onto the backrest of the couch; she squeezes her eyes shut and fights the urge to smack herself on the forehead, now forced to face what she has successfully been ignoring for weeks now.

She can’t ignore it anymore now, not after what just has happened - not after the fear she’s felt when she’s been sure Dinah is in danger, and not after the overwhelming relief which has replaced this fear when she’s seen that Dinah’s perfectly fine.

_ Not that she would have needed you to rush here, anyway,  _ she tells herself, opening her eyes again and staring up at the ceiling,  _ you know she can take care of herself. She doesn’t need you as her knight in shining armour. _

She knows this, has known it even as she has been driving to Dinah’s place as fast as her bike had let her; and still the fear has been there, the fear of losing her to some random mook, and the mere thought makes her heart clench up.

_ Stupid _ , she scolds herself,  _ so fucking stupid, how could you let this happen? You should know better than this. This will only complicate things, and you know that, too. Shame on you! _

Helena scolds herself, but she knows it’s too late, perhaps, she should have done this weeks ago, instead of ignoring it and just letting it grow until it has reached this point, this point of no return.

She’s in love with Dinah, she now knows, and she has no idea what to do about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are all doing fine if you are in isolation and also if you are not. So, I hope everyone is doing fine! :)


	18. Safety Measures

“Okay, so”, Dinah says quite a while later, making both Helena and Renee look at her, the ex-cop having shown up at her place shortly after Helena’s arrival, after having called her contact at the police station to take care of the goons Helena had knocked out at her apartment, “Mancini knows who you are and were you live. He hasn’t sent anyone after me though, and we don’t know if he sent anyone after Helena, so if we’re lucky, he has no idea about the two of us. No offense.”

“None taken”, Renee says, then makes a face, “but it’s just my luck that he figured out who I am, of all people. How?”

“That might be my fault”, Helena mumbles, shifting awkwardly when Renee gives her a questioning look, one which prompts her to elaborate, “um… the gun you gave me? And which I… lost? They might have found it?”

“You brought a gun which is registered to your name to a mission?” Dinah wants to know, incredulous, “Renee! That is so not keeping our identities secret! What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I had no time to find another one”, Renee defends herself, Helena feeling even worse as it has been her who’s lost the gun,not Renee herself, “and I didn’t expect her to lose it! Usually, she takes better care of weapons!”

“Usually, she also doesn’t get thrown around by a guy three times her size”, Dinah shoots back at once, clearly not willing to let Helena take the blame for this, even though Helena herself figures it’s her fault, “don’t pin this on her, it’s not like she lost it on purpose.”

“Guys”, Helena throws in before Renee can retort to that, not wanting them to get into a fight - it wouldn’t be the first time, they work well together as a team, but they also butt heads quite often, “it’s happened, can’t be changed now, and Renee, I’m sorry I lost it. It seems to be the most logical explanation for how Mancini found you though, especially since he didn’t go after Dinah or me, too.”

“You don’t know if he went after you”, Renee points out, still miffed, but at least dropping the topic for the moment, “maybe they’re at your motel right now.”

“They might be”, Helena agrees at once, slightly surprising the ex-cop as she halfway has been sure that Helena would tell her this was bullshit, “which is why we need to find new places to stay. All of us, Dinah, that they haven’t been here yet doesn’t mean they still won’t show up.”

Dinah makes a face at this, because she likes her apartment, even though it’s not in the best neighbourhood; she knows Helena is right though, so she doesn’t protest, just sighs and nods, figuring she’ll find another place where she can stay for a while, it’s not the first time she has to organize something at short notice and it probably won’t be the last. 

“I’ll organize something”, Helena adds, earning a surprised look from the other two, and shrugging in response, feeling a bit awkward again, but pushing that aside as she knows they have other things to worry about now. 

“What”, she thus says, shrugging again for emphasis, “you guys seem to forget I have money. A shitton of it, as Renee once put it, so I can get us all a place to stay. With some extra money, even without a paper trail.”

“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way, but I am not staying in close quarters with the two of you”, Renee declares, shaking her head as if to underline her words, Helena not quite sure if she should be offended at this or not, “we’d end up wanting to strangle each other after a week, if we even last that long.”

“Fine”, Dinah says at once, “you’ll get a place of your own then. But close to ours. Okay?”

“Alright”, Renee replies at once, clearly relieved, and Dinah turns to Helena next, asking her if that’s okay for her, and even though once again, Helena figures she should know better than to agree on living with the woman she has a crush on, she finds herself nodding, telling herself it’s for their own safety and that it has nothing to do with any feelings she has. 

“Maybe in the same building”, she ponders out loud, making Dinah and Renee nod, the ex-cop apparently fine with sharing an apartment building as long as she has an apartment of her own; none of them has any contacts in the city which might help them with this at short notice, but Helena figures that a call to her adoptive fathers might change that, they haven’t been to the United States in years, but she knows they still have some contacts here, and one of those might be helpful.

“I need to make a few phone calls”, she thus says, already rising from the couch, “and get some things from the motel. You guys pack up whatever you need and we’ll meet here again?”

“In two hours”, Renee decides, Helena isn’t quite sure what will take her so long, but nods anyway, “and you, Huntress, you notice anything suspicious at the motel, you call us, alright? Don’t try to pull off any heroics all on your own.”

“Like at your apartment?” Helena snarks, noticing Dinah smirk from the corner of her eye; Renee just gives her a withering glare, then comes to her feet as well, once more telling them both to take care before she heads out.

“So”, Dinah says as the door falls close behind the former cop, looking up at Helena who’s standing there a bit awkwardly, “we’ll be roomates, then? Can’t say that I mind. I hope you’re not the messy type though, or Renee will turn out to be right and we’ll end up strangling each other.”

“I’m not”, Helena says, earning a smirk in response and belatedly realizing that Dinah hasn’t been fully serious - she’s gotten better at realizing when she’s being teased or when someone is joking, but sometimes, she still misses it, “and, um… well, we can be. Unless you want a place of your own, like Renee.”

“Nah”, Dinah replies at once, making Helena swallow heavily by reaching up and briefly touching her hand, “I’m good if you are.”

“Okay”, Helena manages, then has to take in a slow breath to regain her calm, “I, um… go get my stuff then. And come back here.”

Dinah just nods, and Helena practically rushes out of her apartment, her heart hammering in her chest, and certainly not from how fast she is walking.

She’s only got herself to blame for this, she knows, it was her own damn idea - and still she has no idea how she’s going to get through this without slipping up, revealing what she feels and ruining everything, the last thing she wants is to ruin everything, and yet she doesn’t know if she’ll have enough self-control to prevent it. 


	19. Living Arrangements

“Oooh”, Dinah lets out as she enters the apartment, looking around with a raised eyebrow, a look of appreciation, Helena hopes, “nice. And good job getting this place so fast, I’m impressed.”

“Eh”, Helena gives back, shrugging, “no big, I just got connected to the right people. Renee, your place is right next door.”

“Fine with me”, Renee says at once, she hasn’t even seen it yet, but the apartment Helena has somehow found at such short notice for Dinah and her looks fine enough; it’s fully furnished, there’s two bedrooms and a large living room, from what she has seen, it is clean and well-kept, not necessarily a standard in this part of town.

Helena hands her the key to her apartment, then gives one to Dinah for their place; she’s still not sure if this is a good idea, if staying in the same apartment as Dinah will increase the risk of her messing up somehow, but on the other hand, Dinah seems happy with the arrangements, so she doesn’t question it any further.

“Thanks”, Dinah smiles as she accepts the key and puts it in her pocket, “I’ll go put my stuff away. Then we should stock up our fridge?”

She says it casually, as if it’s no big deal, but hearing her say “our fridge” sends a jolt through Helena; she manages a terse nod, then retreats to her own bedroom, using putting her stuff away as an excuse to regain some distance and some control over herself.

_ Jeez _ , she thinks to herself as she starts moving clothes from her duffel bags to the wardrobe,  _ is this what they mean when they say “like a teenager with a crush”? You’re being ridiculous, Helena, get a grip. _

Perhaps, she reflects as she neatly sorts her clothes into the various drawers and shelves, she would know more about this if her life had gone differently; as it is though, she has spent her teenage years learning how to kill people as efficiently as possible, and that hasn’t left much time for learning about crushes and feelings and emotions.

Now, she wishes that she could ask someone about her troubles, but she knows her adoptive dads are not the best choice for this; they might try to help her, simply because they care for her, but as far as she knows, not one of them has ever shown any interest in an actual relationship, they’ve had flings to take care of certain needs, but never more than that. 

And the only other people she knows well enough to talk about this are Dinah - so not an option - and Renee; she figures Harley might count too, after how they’ve worked together to stop Sionis, but she hasn’t seen her in weeks, and she’s not quite sure she wants to know what Harley would have to say about her troubles. 

So, this only leaves Renee, and Helena is not quite sure how the former cop might react, should she come to her with her troubles; she knows that she has to talk about them sooner or later though, ideally before she slips up and makes a mess of things, if she just keeps her worries to herself, it will only make things worse.

Just like having friends and the feelings she has for Dinah are new to her, this realization is new, as well; she’s never been bothered by keeping her emotions to herself before, has steeled herself against pain and misery during her training and has just swallowed it all down, but now, it’s not just her anymore her feelings might have consequences for, but Dinah, too, and the last thing she wants is to hurt her friend or ruin their friendship.

It’s a talk Helena doesn’t look forward to, but one she knows she needs to have, and so, she decides to get it over with quickly; she calls out to Dinah, lets her know she’ll go see how Renee is doing, and once Dinah has let out an agreeing noise, she leaves the apartment and heads to the smaller one next door.

Even though technically, the place is hers, she doesn’t want to be rude, and knocks the door; and only once Renee has called out “come in”, Helena enters, trying hard to appear casual and calm and not as if she wants to talk about a somewhat serious topic.

Clearly, she is not doing a very good job, because Renee just has to take one look at her to raise an eyebrow and ask her if something’s wrong.

“No”, Helena replies at once, an automated response after years she has spent on her own, with no one to trust but herself; then, she reminds herself why she is here in the first place and sighs, Renee giving her a confused look, clearly not sure what is happening.

“Yes”, Helena corrects herself, only confusing Renee further when she then sighs again and continues, “maybe. I don’t know.”

“Okay”, Renee declares, putting down the stack of clothes she’s been holding, “I’ll need clearer answers than that. What’s going on?”

“I have a problem”, Helena sighs, and Renee bites back a comment about how she might have more than one, what with her rage issues and baggage everything, sensing that this is not easy for Helena and wanting to scare her away with a snarky remark, “it’s, um… well…”

“Spit it out”, Renee encourages her, curious now - she knows conversation and socializing are not part of Helena’s talents, but she has never seen her like  _ this _ , and she finds herself wondering what is going on.

“I’m in love with Dinah”, Helena blurts, apparently having taken Renee’s encouragement quite literal; Renee blinks, and stares, and Helena fidgets uncomfortably, fighting the urge to look away, or perhaps even to turn and run back out. 

“Okay”, Renee finally says, shaking her head as if in disappointment, making it Helena’s turn to be confused, “and here I thought you would tell me something new.”

“What?” Helena almost yelps, having expected many answers, but this certainly hasn’t been one of them; Renee snorts in amusement and shakes her head, then sits down on the couch, momentarily hoping Helena won’t notice that it’s more comfortable than the one she’s been stitched up on not too long ago, but then, the assassin looks like she has other things on her mind right now.

“Come on”, Renee says, shaking her head again, “you think I’m blind or stupid or both? I’ve seen the way you look at her, you know. And don’t think I haven’t noticed how fast you ran off a few hours ago, when you thought Mancini’s guys are going after her, even though you know very well she can look out for herself.”

“Um”, is all Helena can let out, and Renee can’t hold back an eye roll this time, but the assassin barely registers it, still too stunned by how casually Renee just has revealed that she’s all too aware of what is going on with her. 

“For the record”, the ex-cop says, smirking at her now, amused by how flabbergasted Helena still looks, “I think the two of you would work out well. Just so you know.”

“Uuuuurgh”, Helena lets out in response, letting her head drop back onto the backrest of the couch, not quite what Renee has been going for with her reassurance, so she blinks yet again, “okay? Thank you? Maybe? Not that it matters, because Dinah surely doesn’t like me that way too, and I’ll slip up sooner or later cause we both know I’m hopeless about these social things, and then she’ll know and be freaked out and all of this will be messed up.”

“Okay, first”, Renee starts, making Helena look at her again, “this must have been the most words I’ve heard you say at once since we’ve  _ met _ . And second…”

She leans closer and, to Helena’s endless surprise, lightly smacks her on the back of the head, looking somewhat smug as she leans back comfortably again, while once again, Helena can only blink.

“This”, Renee tells her, “is called a dope slap, and you deserved that one. Please, don’t tell me you did not notice the way Dinah has been checking you out.”

“Um”, Helena lets out, thinking back to the way Dinah has looked at her when she’s been in her underwear, “well… I sort of… did? But that might just mean she finds me appealing to look at.”

“Trust me, it’s not just that”, Renee tells her, rolling her eyes again, “she’s probably just waiting for you to make a move. If you weren’t a ball of awkwardness, she would have made one long ago, believe me.”

“Um”, Helena makes again, earning a strict look from Renee; then, the ex-cop points at the door, sounding as strict as she is looking when she speaks up again.

“And now”, she orders, “you go over there, and talk to her, tell her what you told me, and make your move. She’ll be happy, trust me. Ecstatic, even. Just don’t make her scream, I’m not sure what that would do to the windows.”

Helena is fairly sure this was some joke about Dinah and her having sex, and blushes bright red; she can only nod now, not even capable anymore of unarticulated sounds, and quickly gets to her feet, suddenly quite eager to get back to her place, if only so Renee won’t make any more remarks about possible sexual activity.

“Go get her, Huntress”, Renee says, earning another quick nod - and then Helena practically rushes out the door and back to the other apartment, her heart and mind racing as she tries to figure out what to say and how to say it.


	20. Move

“Okay, so. I really like you.”   
“Dinah, I have to tell you something.”  
“Hey, Dinah. You, me, making out?”  
“You’re really pretty and I want to kiss you right now.”  
“...uuuuurgh!”

Helena groans in frustration and lightly bumps her head against the wall a few times; as it turns out, living with someone else makes practicing lines in front of the mirror really hard, she doesn’t want Dinah to hear her, and especially not since the lines in question are about her.

Not that she’s getting anywhere, she glumly reflects as she stares at her reflection, she’s been in here whispering ideas and lines to herself for the past fifteen minutes and so far she’s got nothing. 

“Helena?” Dinah now calls out from outside the bathroom, and she flinches, feeling oddly guilty, wondering if Dinah has heard anything, “you okay? You’ve been in there for a while now. You didn’t tear your stitches and are bleeding all over the place in there, are you.”

“No, no”, Helena calls back, mind racing as she tries to come up with an excuse, “I, uh, I was… flossing.”

She smacks herself on the forehead, that has to be the lamest thing she could have come up with, but Dinah seems to buy it, as she lets out a vaguely agreeing noise, then her footsteps move away from the door again.

Holding back another groan, not wanting to regain Dinah’s attention, Helena glares at herself in the mirror, then makes a face as she realizes that she can’t hide away in here longer, not even the most thorough floss takes as long as she already has been in here and if she remains any longer, Dinah will only get suspicious again.

So, she shakes her head at herself, and gives herself another glare, before she finally leaves the bathroom; Dinah is on the living room couch, zapping through the channels, looking at her though when she emerges, and giving her a bright smile which makes her heart skip an excited beat.

“Look”, Dinah says, pointing at the TV, “we even got cable. Have I mentioned how much I like this place?”

“I’m glad you do”, Helena says, sitting down when Dinah pats the spot on the couch next to her invitingly; she ends up a bit closer to her than it’s probably appropriate for friends, but she figures it would be even weirder and perhaps even rude to scoot away, and so, she stays where she is, even though she can feel Dinah’s body heat on her bare arm, sitting so close to her that this is easily possible.

“It’s bad enough you had to leave your place”, she adds, keeping her gaze focused on the TV, but noticing from the corner of her eye how Dinah looks at her instead of at the screen, despite the apparent amazingness of the included cable TV, “would be even worse if you’d end up in some place you hate.”

“Well”, Dinah says, still looking at her, “this place is really nice, what with the fancy furniture and the cable and what not… but it’s got an added bonus, you know, one which would have made many places appealing.”

“Oh?” Helena lets out, now finally looking back at her after all, “what is it? The kitchen? Cause I asked, it’s new, no one cooked in there, ever.”

“No, it’s not the kitchen, dummy”, Dinah gives back, but the fondness in her voice takes the sting out the  _ dummy _ , “it’s the fact that we’re staying here together.”

“Oh”, Helena makes again, and feels her cheeks heat up, cursing the fact that Dinah seems so skilled at making her blush like this, something which never has happened to her before Dinah and the Birds of Prey - Renee has managed, too, a few times, but not nearly as often as the singer, “um. Yes. I… It’s nice to stay here with you, too. I think.”

“You’re adorable when you get all flustered like this”, Dinah states matter-of-factly, coming to her feet a moment later, “you want a beer, too?”

“Yeah”, Helena manages, her mind racing, something Dinah seems to notice nothing of as she walks to the kitchen, the fridge and cupboards well stocked by now, after a shopping trip the two of them have made to the supermarket nearby.

_ Go get her, Huntress _ , she hears Renee’s advice, and before she can change her mind, she gets to her feet, telling herself that surely Renee knows what she is talking about and that she’s right when she says Dinah likes her, too; and so, she moves to follow the other woman, with the unintended and unfortunate side effect though that she startles Dinah when the singer turns away from the fridge, beer bottles in hand, and Helena is suddenly right in front of her.

“Okay”, Dinah says after having needed a moment to recover from that little scare, “next time we end up moving to a new place, it’ll have to be with a wooden floor, so you can’t sneak up on me like that. Jeez, you’re quiet. I would have brought you the beer, you know?”   


“I have to tell you something”, Helena blurts, before she can think about it and stop herself; Dinah blinks, not having expected this, then nods, and gives her a curious look, waiting for her to say something.

Helena just stands there, and no words are coming.

_ It’s simple,  _ she berates herself, feeling worse with every second ticking by,  _ just tell her! Tell her you like her! Or ask her if she wants to go out for dinner! Just say  _ something _ , god dammit, don’t just stand here like an idiot! _

“Helena?” Dinah says, and Helena is mortified that nearly a minute has passed with her just standing there, “whatever it is, just tell me. You can tell me anything, okay?”

She seems hopeful now, Helena notes, the way she’s looking at her, and she again tries to say something,  _ anything _ , just so she won’t stand here any longer like a complete idiot, but still no words are coming, not even the ones she’s practiced in front of the mirror.

They’ve all fled her mind, leaving it a jumbled mess, and she can’t think of a single line or even word to say; and so, she decides that actions speak louder than words, to trust Renee and her assessment of Dinah’s liking for her fully and to take a leap of faith she wouldn’t have dared to make a day ago.

She takes a swift step closer to Dinah, places both hands on her waist and kisses her, right on the lips, and even if this will turn out to be the biggest mistake of her life, she knows she can die happy now, after just having tasted her lips for a second.

Then Dinah kisses her back, after a second of surprised hesitation, and she feels like she  _ will  _ die now, right here on the spot.

Fortunately, she doesn’t, but her heart does tighten up when Dinah pulls back from the kiss all too fast, mumbling “wait, wait, wait”; for a second, Helena thinks that Dinah hasn’t meant it when she’s kissed her back, then she realizes what is happening when the other woman raises the beer bottles she is still holding.

“Just let me put these somewhere”, she says, smiling happily, and Helena belatedly realizes that she is grinning like a fool, too; Dinah quickly put the bottles down on the counter, then steps closer again, until their bodies are touching, and Helena has to bite back a groan, feeling like a horny teenager now. Or what she imagines a horny teenager has to feel like, considering how vastly her teenage years differed from any other regular person.

“There”, Dinah says as her hands are free now, “that’s better. Cause now I can do this.”

She reaches up and wraps both arms around Helena’s neck, one hand entangling in her hair; and then, they are kissing again, and perhaps Helena hugs her a bit tighter when the kiss deepens, if only so her legs won’t buckle.

She feels dazed when they pull apart again, out of breath and a bit dizzy; she’s unable to stop grinning though, and Dinah is smiling brightly, as well, eyes sparkling as she looks up at the taller woman.

“I’ve been hoping you’d do that for a while now, you know”, she admits, moving one hand so she can run the tips of her fingers along Helena’s jawline, smirking when the assassin shivers visibly at the touch, “I would have done it first, but I was kinda worried I might freak you out.”

“You might have”, Helena admits, blushing again, “I was freaking myself out quite a bit, too. And that was my first kiss, you know. Well. First and second.”

“Time for a third, then”, Dinah decides, thankfully not reacting oddly to what she just has learned; Helena smiles happily and nods, and kisses Dinah again, and just like that, all her worries and concerns are gone and she’s simply happy. 


	21. Sleeping Arrangements

“Tell me”, Dinah mumbles quite a while later, back in the living room, and more or less on the couch - she’s sitting in Helena’s lap, facing her, so technically, she figures she’s on Helena, but Helena is on the couch, so she is on the couch by proxy, “how many kisses at this point?”

“Don’t know”, Helena says with a little shrug, making Dinah smirk, “lost count. Was I supposed to count?”

“No”, Dinah replies with a small laugh, “actually, I’m sort of glad you lost count, cause I’d doubt my kissing skills if your mind still was clear enough to do that while we’re making out.”

“You’re very skilled”, Helena praises at once, earning another bright smile from the other woman; Dinah then takes a moment to reassure her that she is quite skilled as well before she kisses her yet again, pulling back somewhat quickly this time though as a knock from the door interrupts them.

“This better be important”, Dinah grumbles as she pulls back, and even though Helena isn’t happy about the interruption, she grins like an idiot again, because she likes how being interrupted at kissing her makes Dinah grumble, “yes? It’s open!”

“If I had been one of Mancini’s guys, you’d be in trouble now, just calling out like that”, Renee comments as she enters, then pauses when she gets a closer look at them, Helena sitting on the couch and Dinah practically straddling her.

“Ah”, she lets out, unfazed, “about time you two figured this out. Congrats, I guess? Don’t mess it up.”

“Thanks”, Dinah dryly says, making Helena smirk, “I guess you’re not here just to see what we’re doing? There’s beer in the fridge if you want one.”

“Nah”, Renee confirms as she goes to help herself to a beer, “not to interrupt your lovefest here, but we do still have some planning to do. We might be safe here for now, but Mancini is still after us.”

“Yes, he is”, Dinah sighs, not making a move to get off of Helena’s lap, the assassin wondering if this is considered rude with Renee here now, then decides she doesn’t really care, “so what are we gonna do about it?”

“We should hit him first”, Helena suggests, making them both look at her, Renee having to peer past Dinah, but apparently not minding as she doesn’t make any sort of comment, “not let him come to us. He won’t expect that.”

“Because no sane person would do that”, Renee points out, “hit him where? Right in his home? Where he has all his guys around?”

“Yes”, Helena says with a shrug, “I’ve done it before, on my own. With the three of us, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work.”

“Because you’re a stealthy assassin pro, and we’re not”, Dinah points out, Renee half-heartedly protesting that she can be quiet if she has to, “and it’s easier to hide for one person than for three.”

“Well”, Helena starts, and Dinah shoots her a look which immediately makes her fall silent again; still Dinah is looking at her strictly, and then shakes her head, speaking up before Helena has the chance to say anything else.

“No”, she strictly says, “you will not even think of going in there alone. Way too dangerous, even if you have done it before. It’s either all of us, or no one, no solo experiments.”

“Fine”, Helena sighs, frowning when Renee smirks and mumbles “whipped” into her beer, not asking about it though, not sure she wants to know, “another plan, then. Wait, do we even know where he lives?”

“No”, Renee has to admit, and Helena makes a face; Dinah doesn’t seem all too bothered though, smirking when the assassin gives her a questioning look, clearly not having an idea what Dinah is thinking about.

“I bet Harley does”, Dinah says, Helena raising an eyebrow as she realizes that Dinah is probably right, “she knows practically every bad guy in this city. And if she doesn’t know where he lives, she’ll know someone who knows.”

“Good thinking”, Renee agrees, “but do we know how to contact her?”

“I do”, Dinah nods, earning a surprised look from the ex-cop, “when she left me Helena’s account numbers, she added her phone number, too. I’ll just text her and we’ll know if it’s legit.”

“Okay, you do that”, Renee says, then they all just sit there in silence for a few moments as Dinah doesn’t make any sort of move; finally, Renee raises an eyebrow and adds “now?”, and Dinah sighs, pouting adorably afterwards, Renee rolling her eyes at response.

“I don’t want to get up”, Dinah states, Helena feeling her cheeks heat up again, “Helena, you might be pure muscle, but you’re surprisingly comfy to sit on.”

Renee rolls her eyes again, but doesn’t make any comment, and with another sigh, Dinah finally does get up; Helena immediately misses the comfortable weight on her lap, but doesn’t say that out loud, not wanting to imagine what sort of comment this might elicit from the former cop.

Apparently, Dinah has truly enjoyed sitting on her as well, as she returns to that spot once she has found her phone; she quickly types into it, then sends the text, twisting on Helena’s lap to put the phone on the table afterwards.

“There”, she states, “now we just have to wait for Harley to react. I just wrote that we need her knowledge, so hopefully she’ll be curious and answer quickly.”

“Yeah”, Renee agrees, “but until she does, all we can do is wait, and I’d rather do that in my place. So you guys can make out some more.”

“Thank you”, Dinah sweetly says, while Helena colours again; Renee smirks at them, then grabs her beer and tells them to have a nice evening before she heads out, back to her own apartment, and the moment the door clicks close behind her, Dinah is focused on Helena again, smirking as she traces her jawline.

“So”, she says, smile widening when she hears Helena take in a sharp breath at her gentle touch, “your bedroom or mine?”

“Um”, is all Helena is capable off, feeling a bit overwhelmed now - she’s had her first kiss roughly an hour ago, so this seems a bit rushed, something Dinah clearly catches, as her eyes widen, and she hurriedly shakes her head.

“No no no”, she quickly says, “no pressure, honey, we’ll do this at your pace, alright? I just would like to… cuddle?”

“Oh”, Helena lets out, having to clear her throat before she’s capable of full sentences again, “yeah, that sounds nice. And, um… thank you.”

“Nothing to thank me for”, Dinah reassures her, then gets off her lap and grasps her hand, tugging slightly to get her to her feet, “so… shall we get some sleep then? We might need all the energy we can get for Mancini and his friends.”

Helena nods, and makes a quick detour to her bedroom once it has been decided they’re gonna sleep in Dinah’s room, to put on her sleepwear; and a short while later, she’s in Dinah’s bed - again, she thinks to herself, but this time, she's not alone as Dinah lies cuddled up to her, her head resting on her chest and her arms around her.

Helena sleeps well that night, better than she has in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay, snuggles XD Stay safe everyone!


	22. Treat

Helena is the first to wake up in the next morning, and she quickly realizes that during the night, Dinah and she have shifted, both of them lying on their side now, but still so close that their bodies are touching; her arm is draped over Dinah’s waist, and she’s fairly certain that this is called spooning, and if she remembers correctly, she’s the big spoon right now. 

It makes her feel warm and content, and she allows herself to just lie there for a while and to enjoy it; then, her stomach rumbles in demand of breakfast, and her need for caffeine gets too big to ignore, and so, holding back a sigh, she carefully gets out of bed, trying her best to not move more than necessary for that so she won’t wake up Dinah.

She succeeds, and feels oddly proud of herself as she pads into the kitchen, now glad that moving soundlessly is easy for her; making breakfast won’t be possible without creating any sort of sound, but she does so as quietly as possible, working quietly as she prepares a meal her adoptive dads often served for breakfast back in Sicily.

Just when the coffee finishes running through and the food is about to be done, Dinah comes out of the bedroom, rubbing her eyes sleepily and yawning, looking so adorable Helena nearly can’t stand it; she finds herself grinning from ear to ear, wondering if it’s possible to overload on happiness, only feeling better when Dinah smiles back at her.

“Good morning”, Helena says, Dinah echoing the sentiment before she steps closer and gently kisses her; she could get used to starting her mornings like this, Helena thinks to herself as Dinah pulls back, then peers at the frying pan, sniffing audibly and letting out a noise of appreciation.

“That smells amazing”, she then declares, “what is it?”

“Omelette with tomatoes, cheese, onions and sausage”, Helena lets her know, taking a critical look at said dish to make sure it isn’t burning or anything, “it’s not very Sicilian, but one of my dads often made this for breakfast, it gives a lot of energy. Oh, and it’s delicious. Well, it was whenever he made it, I hope mine will be edible, too.”

“If it tastes half as good as it smells, I’ll be happy”, Dinah tells her, leaning in for another quick, but gentle kiss before she makes her way to the coffee machine, pouring herself a cup and one for Helena, the assassin somewhat amazed to see that she knows how she takes her coffee - no milk, but three sugars, which is quite a lot, but one of the few sugary treats she allows herself. 

“You’re about to find out how it tastes”, she states, deeming the food done and moving it on the plates she has readied; feeling a bit nervous, hoping Dinah will like it, she then makes her to the kitchen table, Dinah following her with the coffee cups, Helena not taking a bite of the food though until Dinah has and she can see her reaction.

“Oh, my God”, Dinah lets out after the first forkful, “holy shit. This is amazing.”

“Glad you like it”, Helena says, now daring to take a bite as well; it’s not quite as good as when her adoptive dad has made it, but it tastes well enough, and Dinah seems to truly like it, considering how fast she is eating.

“I’m lucky”, the singer declares once she has munched down half the portion, wiping her mouth before she continues, “Helena Bertinelli, great at kissing, very nice to look at, skilled assassin and fighter, and a good cook, too. And she’s aaaaall mine.”

“All yours, indeed”, Helena agrees immediately, once again finding herself grinning stupidly; Dinah smiles at her, then mumbles “what a treat”, before she leans over to her and kisses her, the kiss quickly deepening.

“Okay”, Dinah mumbles once they have pulled apart again, with a healthy flush to her cheeks Helena is pretty sure she’s not imagining, “not to sound like a dirty lech, but we better focus on breakfast now instead of making out, or I might get too turned on to function.”

“Oh”, Helena lets out, blushing as well, not quite used to having such things said to her, “um… sorry?”

“Don’t be”, Dinah tells her immediately, taking a sip of her coffee before she continues, “that was a compliment, in fact, about your kissing skill. You’re a natural.”

Helena’s blush deepens at this, and she clears her throat; taking pity on her, Dinah stops complimenting her - for the moment - and focuses on her food again, emptying the plate in record time, a look of content on her face when she leans back in her seat.

“That was really good”, she lets the taller woman know, “but just so you know, you better not make that sort of awesome breakfast too often. Cause if you do, I’ll get used to it, and then I’ll want you to make it for me all the time.”

“I don’t mind”, Helena says at once, Dinah looking quite happy at hearing this, “it’s nice to cook for someone else, too, you know, I’ve only ever cooked for myself so far. It’s nice to share that.”

“Selfishly, I have to agree”, Dinah tells her, earning a low snort which makes her smile - Helena doesn’t laugh much, not even now, and she’s glad each time she gets at least some sort of amused noise from the assassin, “you cook a lot then? Not just breakfast?”

“A healthy diet is important”, Helena recites in response, words she has heard roughly three times a day during her first year in Sicily - often when she was unhappy about the vegetables on her plate -, “takeout can be part of it, but shouldn’t be consumed regularly. With a home-cooked meal, you can control what you consume and how much of it.”

“Now I feel bad”, Dinah tells her, amused though at how she rattled that down, showing how often she has heard these words, “cause I eat a lot of takeout. I better not tell you how much or you might scream in shock.”

“Well, if you like my cooking, it might lessen”, Helena shrugs, earning another bright smile, “cause, well, I sort of enjoy it, and it’ll be even nicer when I can share it with you. It was… one of the few normal things I did growing up, I suppose.”

“Lucky me”, Dinah says, making Helena smile slightly, “and, no offense, but I didn’t really expect you to be a master chef. Who knew, my girlfriend has hidden depths. Tell me, any other shockingly mundane things you’re good at? Like, I don’t know, knitting?”

She smiles, but her smile fades when Helena says nothing, just sits there and staring at her, sitting so still that for a moment, Dinah isn’t even sure she’s still breathing; concerned, she reaches over and touches the other woman’s hand, worry in her tone when she continues.

“Helena?” she says, mind racing as she tries to figure out if perhaps, she has accidentally offended the assassin somehow, “babe? You okay?”

“Um”, Helena lets out, then actually shakes her head, as if to clear her mind, “I, uh… Yes. I’m fine. You said I’m your girlfriend.”

“Oh”, Dinah realizes why Helena’s so stunned, “was that too rash? Too early? I’m sorry, I…”

“No no no”, Helena quickly interrupts her, shaking her head again, this time for emphasis, “it’s perfectly fine, it’s great. I… I like being your girlfriend.”

“That’s lucky”, Dinah says, smiling again now, “cause I like being your girlfriend, too. I do believe I listed all your positive qualities earlier, and now the woman who embodies them all is my girlfriend. What a treat.”

Helena grins dopily, unable to stop herself, then leans in for a kiss; afterwards, Dinah declares she’ll go check her phone, see if Harley has written back, and gets up from her seat, moving to where she’s put her phone the previous day.

“She did”, she tells Helena, focused on the screen, “and also, I know you’re looking at my ass right now.”

She hears Helena choke on her coffee, and snickers to herself; and when she turns back to the table, Helena is very pointedly not looking at her, but her cheeks are reddened, and Dinah knows she was right.

“I think I’ve said this before?” she says, moving back to the table and sitting down again, “but you’re adorable when you get all flustered. Also, Harley says we should meet her tonight at the bar where we had our victory drinks, I’ll let Renee know.”

“Okay”, Helena manages, still feeling flustered; Dinah winks at her, and grins, and this doesn’t really help, her cheeks still burning as she finishes her coffee. 

_ What a treat, indeed _ , she thinks to herself as she looks at Dinah over the rim of her cup, barely able to believe her luck - this woman, this stunning, amazing and capable woman is her girlfriend now, and thinks just as highly of Helena as Helena thinks of her, and she finds herself wondering if this some sort of repayment for the pain she has gone through in her life already, if she gets to be happy now after all the pain she has suffered from such an early age.

And she hopes that she won’t lose this happiness, as she lost all happiness in her life once before. 


	23. Help

The second they enter the bar, Harley hollers “girls!” from the booth she has conquered for them, her feet up on the table and margaritas already waiting for them; several of the other patrons look their way, but quickly avert their gaze again when Helena glares at them, making it quite obvious without saying a word that there is nothing to see here.

“Long time no see”, Harley says as they sit out, handing out glasses, “here, have a drink, it’s on me. I’m loaded.”

“Because you pawned Helena’s diamond, didn’t you”, Renee dryly says, and Harley smiles innocently, shrugging, while Helena can’t be bothered to care, it’s not like she needs what the diamond has been worth.

“Yes I did”, Harley shamelessly says, winking at Helena, “but I didn’t get nearly as much as Helena did with the account numbers. Which she got from me, by the way, so I assume we’re good.”

“Technically, she got them from me”, Dinah points out while Helena nods, “but in the end it made no difference. Anyone else might have kept them to get rich.”

“Eh”, Harley shrugs, “banks and I don’t mix. Except when I rob them. Which I won’t have to do for quite a while now, because diamond money, yay! So you can stop looking at me like that, Montoya.”

Renee grumbles into her drink, but does stop glaring; grinning, Harley leans back into the bench, lifting her own glass and taking a long sip of it before she speaks up again.

“So, you need my knowledge, you said”, she says, pointing a finger gun at Dinah, “let me guess, you want the dirt on Joey Mancini.”

“How do you know that?” Renee wants to know, raising an eyebrow; Harley gives her a look which screams “duh”, and she frowns again, not liking it to be looked at that way.

“Word on the street says the Birds of Prey pissed him off”, Harley tells them, grinning at Helena as she continues, “seems like you killed someone’s BFF again. Good job, that Goliath guy was way too creepy and crazy.”

“That says something, coming from you”, Dinah comments, smiling innocently at the look Harley shoots her, “and well, yeah, word on the street is right. You don’t happen to know where he lives, do you? We want to hit him first this time, not let him come to us.”

“Course I know”, Harley says at once, making them wait afterwards by taking a sip of her drink, “Helena, honestly, I’m surprised you don’t. He lives right next door to where you used to live.”

“Oh”, Helena lets out, Harley not missing the concerned look Dinah shoots her, “so that’s why his name rang a bell. Huh. He probably was there a few times, at… at my parents’.”

“Probably yup”, Harley agrees, then grins at both Dinah and her, “so are you two finally sleeping together?”

Helena chokes on her drink - again, she sourly has time to realize, this seems to become some sort of messy habit - while Dinah lets out a scandalized “Harley!”; unimpressed by their reactions, Harley just smirks and shrugs, eyes twinkling when she responds.

“What”, she innocently asks, “I could tell you two wanted to get in each other’s pants already back at the amusement park. And judging from how you reacted, it haaaaappeeeened.”

“We’re dating”, Dinah decides to at least be partially honest, figuring it is none of Harley’s business if they’ve had sex or not; Helena is blushing deeply next to her, but doesn’t say anything, her blush deepening when Harley lets out a happy giggle in response.

“Harley, stop it before Bertinelli spontaneously combusts”, Renee says with a roll of her eyes, “look at her, she looks like a ripe tomato.”

“Yeah, leave my girlfriend be”, Dinah adds, Harley gleefully pointing out that this only had made Helena blush even deeper; clearing her throat, Helena hides behind her glass, and thankfully, the teasing stops again as Harley wants to know when they are planning to hit Mancini’s home.

“As fast as possible”, Helena says, her face slowly returning to a more normal colour, “maybe even tonight, now that we know where he lives. Tomorrow night, at the latest.”

“Tonight would be good”, Harley declares, “cause I want to come, and I got plans for tomorrow. And no, Montoya, I won’t tell you.”

“Hmph”, Renee lets out, while Dinah raises an eyebrow at Harley and Helena looks moderately surprised; it’s Dinah who asks if she really wants to come, and Harley nods enthusiastically at once.

“It’s been a while since I got into a proper fight”, she then says, raising her arm and theatrically flexing her biceps, “and I gotta stay in shape! Can’t go soft now, can I.”

“I got a workout routine, I can write it down for you”, Helena offers helpfully, “it includes push-ups and pull-ups and all sorts of exercises to increase strength and stamina.”

Dinah’s eyes briefly glaze over as she imagines Helena doing push-ups and pull-ups, and Harley giggles, declines Helena’s offer though; Helena blushes again as she notices the look on Dinah’s face, the singer clearing her throat before she takes a sip of her margarita.

“Dinah”, Harley says, doing a surprisingly good imitation of the woman she’s impersonating, “focus.”

“Shut up”, Dinah tells her, and Harley pouts, as that hasn’t exactly been the response she’s been hoping for; remembering this exchange, Helena smirks, then pushes her glass away, shrugging at the questioning look Harley gives her.

“If we hit him tonight, I need to be sober”, she explains, Dinah and Renee nodding their agreement, “alcohol makes you slow. And sloppy.”

“I kicked a lot of ass when I was high on cocaine”, Harley thoughtfully says, and Helena’s eyes nearly pop out, making Dinah laugh at her flabbergasted look, “but alcohol doesn’t work like cocaine, does it. Have you ever tried it, Huntress? It’s like an energy boost.”

“No!” Helena says, mortified, “never! And I never will, jeez. Now, if you want to hit him tonight, let’s go, before I change my mind, after what you just revealed about your casual drug use.”

“Drugs are bad”, Harley says wisely, and Helena just rolls her eyes - before she comes to her feet without another word, Dinah and Renee doing the same a moment later, Harley being the last one to get up, grinning again though and giddily clapping her hands.

“Alright!” she cries out, the patrons of the bar looking again, but once again quickly glancing away when they are met with what Dinah secretly starts to call Helena’s Steely Glare of Death, “let’s go and kick ass!”

“Yes, let’s”, Renee nods, the other two nodding, as well; and then they head out and to Renee’s car together, Helena and Dinah getting into the backseat while Harley, to Renee’s slight dismay, takes the passenger seat, clapping in excitement again as Renee steps down on the gas pedal and drives off, knowing exactly where she has to go now.


	24. Strike

Dinah thinks Helena is adorable when she gets flustered, but the way she looks at her slightly bent crossbow now is, while a sad occasion, somewhat adorable too; she’s actually pouting at it, turning it this way and that, as if it might magically repair itself if she just holds it for long enough.

“Don’t worry, babe”, Dinah finally can’t take it anymore, ignoring Harley’s squee from the passenger seat at the pet name, “we’ll get it fixed once we took care of Mancini. You’ll be amazing without it too, you know that.”

“Well, yes”, Helena sighs, well aware of her skill, “but still. I’ve been using this crossbow for so long, I’ve grown kinda attached to it. Is that weird?”

“Attachment to objects is something many humans experience”, Harley throws in before Dinah can say something, “it’s why people give their Roombas pet names. Did you cry when it got bent? I know someone who cried when their Roomba broke.”

“...no”, Helena says, not sure if this the right answer or the wrong one - and wondering what a Roomba is, but not sure if she should ask; apparently though, it was the right thing to say, as Harley nods in appreciation, then leans back in her seat again and gazes outside, at the increasingly luxurious buildings they are passing.

“Man, what a nice part of town”, she comments, “I better remember all these buildings. Uh. For sightseeing.”

“Don’t even try”, Renee says with a roll of her eyes, while Dinah and Helena smirk to themselves; Helena finally gives up on trying to heal her crossbow with the power of her mind and puts it aside, sighing to herself, Dinah giving her a sympathetic look and reaching over to pat her shoulder reassuringly, glad when she earns a little smile in response.

“You need a knife?” Harley wants to know, pulling one from out of nowhere and holding it up; Helena raises an eyebrow, then pulls her pants leg up to reveal the knife strapped to her calf, letting the other woman know she had her own.

“Aw”, Harley lets out, the knife vanishing in the blink of an eye, and Helena blinks as she wonders where it has gone, then deciding she doesn’t want to know, “okay. Should have known you got your own. Huntress, always prepared. Like a scout!”

“I don’t think scouts bring knives when they go out for drinks”, Dinah points out; Harley snickers, and then Renee lets out a sharp whistle, gesturing at the road up ahead once she has their attention.

“Mancini’s mansion up ahead”, she points out, “so you girls better focus now. We need to be on top of our game for this, he probably has a bunch of his hired hands around, all over the place.”

“Mancini’s mansion sounds like a video game title”, Harley ponders out loud in response, “and I see you still talk like a cop from an 80s show. Would have thought hanging with cool people like Helena and Dinah will change that after a while.”

“Yes, because Helena is such a conversationalist”, Renee dryly replies, and Dinah snorts before she can stop herself; Helena looks at her with a raised eyebrow, and Dinah whispers “Sorry”, falling silent and involuntarily tensing up when Renee parks the car at a darkened corner, at a safe distance from the actual mansion.

“Alright”, she says, “how do we do this? And no, Harley, the front door is not an option.”

“Aw”, Harley let outs, lowering her hand again; Helena frowns as she tries to remember what the house next to the one of her family has looked like, but the details are fuzzy - Harley would probably have some fancy explanation for that, she thinks to herself, something about repressed trauma, but she figures that now is not the time to ask.

“Skylight?” she says instead, making them all look at her, “if I remember correctly, his house has one, and it worked at the warehouse.”

“It did”, Dinah agrees, “but please, this time, don’t get tossed around by giant guys. And your wound isn’t healed yet, so be careful, okay?”

“No more giant guys for Mancini, I hope”, Helena replies, “and I’ll be as careful as I can be.”

This is the best she can ask for, Dinah knows, and so, she just nods; then, she reaches over and briefly squeezes Helena’s hand, the way the assassin’s fingers immediately return the gesture making her feel a bit better.

Now that they have a rough plan, they all get out of the car, and Helena opens the trunk, pulling out the climbing hook she’s got stores in there, among other useful things; after a moment, she grabs an extra knife too, just to be on the safe side, and a baseball bat, which she hands to Dinah, the smaller woman smirking as she holds the familiar weight.

Helena takes the lead, as she knows the area, at least better than any of the others; they figure that Mancini will have guards out, and he does, but the two men patrolling clearly aren’t expecting any trouble, and they never know what hit them as Helena and Dinah efficiently take them out from behind. 

Side by side now, they move closer to the mansion itself, Renee and Harley right behind them; Helena quickly spots a skylight at a manageable height, Dinah taking a step back just to be on the safe side when the taller woman readies the climbing hook, then twirls it around her wrist a few times before she throws it.

There’s an audible scraping noise as it fastens itself to the edge of the roof, and they all pause, waiting for any sort of response from within the house, noises or lights flickering to live; nothing happens though, and after half a minute, Helena starts climbing, using the rope to easily move up the wall.

“Dinah”, Harley whispers, Dinah just letting out a vaguely questioning noise, her eyes glued to her girlfriend climbing up the wall, “focus. You’re drooling.”

Dinah startles at this while Renee chuckles quietly, then glares at Harley as she whispers “I am not drooling!”; Harley just grins, and Dinah feels her cheeks heat up, pointedly looking away afterwards, but still feeling Harley’s eyes on her.

_ Not my fault Helena is so nice to look at _ , she thinks to herself, gaze straying back to the assassin, just in time to see her reach the edge of the roof and pull herself up; she quickly glances around, making sure no guards are up on here, then signals at them to follow her, and one by one they do, all a little out of breath by the time they join Helena up on the roof, while Helena herself isn’t even sweating.

“Alright”, Helena whispers, peering through the skylight, “looks like this leads to some sort of hallway. Go in here, or try to find another one which might lead us to a proper room?”

“Go in here”, Renee decides, “if we walk around up here too much, they might hear and realize we are here. Wait…”

She pulls a long, slim tool from the inner pocket of her jacket and starts working on the skylight; it barely takes her twenty seconds to get it open, and she shakes her head as she lifts it,all of them pausing again as they wait for an alarm to start blaring.

“I got a weird feeling about this”, Dinah states when nothing happens, frowning, “he only has two guys patrolling? And no alarm system? He’s either dumb, overly confident, or this is a trap.”

“Only one way to find out”, Helena points out, pulling her knife from the sheath just in case, “if it’s a trap, he knows we are here, but we can still take him down.”

Dinah has a bad feeling about this, but nods, knowing that they have to take this to Mancini if they don’t want to end ambushed in their homes again; Helena responds to her agreement by holding the knife between her teeth - and that should definitely not look as hot as it does, Dinah thinks to herself - and lowering herself down the open skylight and into the building.

Dinah is next, followed by Renee and Harley; the hallway remains dark once they all are inside, no goons storm out at them and start shooting, and yet Dinah feels as if this is a trap, nervous again now as she glances around, suddenly not so sure anymore if this truly has been a good idea.


	25. Mancini

Even though no bad guys are in sight, Helena keeps her knife up as she sneaks down the hallway, trying to figure out where Mancini might be in the large mansion; she figures that his room is somewhere in the middle, for safety so he can be surrounded by his men, and probably not on the ground floor, to make getting to him through the windows harder.

She whispers her thoughts to the others, and they agree; now she regrets that there was no time to properly track the man and learn the layout of his home, but unlike the men she has been after before, he knew that someone’s after him, and that would have made tracking him much more difficult.

So, she knows they have to make the best of this chance they are given to take care of him, but by now, she shares Dinah’s feeling that this is a trap; finally though, just when Helena starts to think that the house is actually empty and Mancini left to avoid them, faint noise reaches her ears, sounds which she quickly identifies as a TV.

Helena turns to the others and gestures down the hall, then at her ear, silently asking if they are hearing it too; they all nod, and Helena takes the lead again, tense as they approach the source of the sound, one of the rooms down the hallway, and if she has memorized what she has seen of the house’s layout correctly, the room is pretty much right in the middle. 

Soundlessly, Helena approaches the door, briefly debates what to do - open it slowly or kick it open - then notices Renee miming a kick, and figures that she knows what she’s doing; and so, knife still raised, she takes a step back and kicks the door open.

Mancini is sitting facing the door, smiling, clearly having expected them, several of his men standing behind him; they all have guns, Helena registers, but not Mancini himself.

He has a crossbow pointed at the door, and he still smiles as he fires.

Helena acts purely on instinct, she has seen it coming and this has been part of her training, thankfully; and so, her free hand shoots up and she catches the bolt, an inch from her face, and Mancini’s smile slips from his face so fast she almost expects to hear it shatter on the floor.

“Holy shit”, Harley says behind her, impressed, but she keeps her focus on Mancini and his men; one of them recovers faster than the others and aims his gun, and Helena throws her knife, and he goes down gurgling, the blade protruding from his throat now, the gun clattering uselessly from his hand as he dies.

Quickly, Helena steps aside, allowing the others to get into the room too; she doesn’t stop moving, but dives forward, tackling another one of the men to the ground, and swiping the legs out from underneath a third one while Renee fires several times in quick succession, taking more of them down.

Helena knows better than to look, but she can hear the sound of wood meeting flesh, and knows it’s Dinah, mixing with kicks and punches, which has to be Harley; from the corner of her eye, she sees Mancini struggle to reload his crossbow, but he takes too long, way too long, and before he realizes what is happening, she’s in front of him and stabs the bolt she’s caught into his arm,  _ through _ his arm, nailing it to the seat and making him howl in pain.

“Shut it”, Renee harshly says, a quick glance around the room showing that all the men which had been in there with him are either dead or unconscious, “you deserve that. You’re lucky she just did that and didn’t kill you.”

Helena lets out a vaguely agreeing grunt as she snatches the crossbow from him; it’s an expensive, good model, and she immediately decides to keep it for herself, as backup in case hers gets bent or damaged otherwise again. 

“Harley”, Renee says as Mancini keeps groaning, but at least he stopped yelling, “you come with me, we make sure that no one else is around to surprise us. Canary, Huntress, you stay here and…”

The sound of footsteps interrupts her, many of them and approaching fast; she just has a moment to exchange one look with Dinah, and to briefly nod, and Helena moves to stand behind her, knowing what will come next, and not liking it much, but knowing it’s their best bet.

“Cover your ears”, Dinah still takes the time to say, just as the first men appear in the doorway; she can’t turn her head to look if the others are doing so, there’s no time, so she just pulls in a deep breath - and unleashes her cry, the men being thrown back, the doorframe shattering into a million tiny splinters, she can see that the men are screaming, but can’t hear them, her voice drowns out everything. 

She keeps it up until she can’t anymore, until she feels her knees weaken, and only stops then; and just like last time she’s used it, she collapses, but this time, she doesn’t end up on the floor, Helena catches her instead and picks her up on her arms with ease.

“Man, you’re strong”, Harley comments, earning a small shrug from Helena while Dinah smiles somewhat dopily; she’s not close to passing out this time, but she feels fuzzy, and apparently has lost some of the control between her brain and mouth, as she speaks without thinking, and makes Helena blush yet again.

“Strong and hot and aaaaall mine”, Dinah babbles, grinning at the flustered Helena, “and so adorable when she blushes. Awwww.”

Renee rolls her eyes, but Helena is fairly certain she sees her smirk when she turns away; she glares at the former cop’s back, doesn’t make a comment though, simply following her outside, looking at the men Dinah has taken down, glad to see that none of them is in a state to fight back.

The cry has been effective already back at the amusement park, Helena reflects as she steps over lifeless bodies, but it has been devastating in these close quarters; it threw the men, as it did at the park, but they didn’t have far to go, so they hit walls and the ceiling and now all of them lie there, some groaning, but most of them out cold. 

“Take her home”, Renee tells Helena as they move past the downed men, “make sure she takes it easy for the rest of the night. I’ll call my contact and take care of Mancini. Harley, you might want to leave before the cops arrive.”

“Oh definitely”, Harley says at once, already pulling out her phone, “I’ll organize us a ride, have you two dropped off at home.”

“Thanks”, Helena says, then remembers that Harley doesn’t know they live somewhere else now and gives her the new address; Harley raises an eyebrow as she knows this is in one of the nicer parts of town, doesn’t comment though, sending a quick text instead and beaming when her phone lights up not even a minute later.

“Ride is on the way”, she states, making Helena nod, “let’s go wait outside. You can hold her up a bit longer or you need help?”

“I’m good”, Helena says at once, shifting Dinah slightly so that the other woman’s head ends up on her shoulder, a position she figures is more comfortable for her; and clearly, Dinah agrees, as she lets out a “hmmm” sound - before she starts nuzzling her neck, to Harley’s great amusement.

Helena feels her knees grow weak at the feeling of Dinah’s lips on her skin, but steels herself against the warmth this causes to well up within her; stoically, she follows Harley outside, even though it gets considerably harder to keep a straight face when Dinah wraps both arms around her and squeezes her.

“Stop that”, Helena whispers, not wanting Harley to hear, “or I’ll drop you on accident, you know.”

“You would never drop me and you know that”, Dinah replies at once, the way she mumbles against her neck forcing Helena to bite back a groan; she lets out a grunt instead, torn between hoping that the ride will arrive soon and hoping it will be delayed, because she does like holding Dinah in her arms like that, and she can tell Dinah likes it, too, and she doesn’t want that to stop anytime soon.

The ride does arrive somewhat quickly, to Helena’s slight dismay, and that dismay grows even further when she sees that Cassandra is the one driving; the teen smiles brightly at her and waves, and Helena holds back a sharp comment about how she shouldn’t be driving as she carefully moves Dinah into the backseat, then sits next to her, telling herself that they need this ride and that beggars can’t be choosers.

“No worries”, Harley says as she flops down onto the passenger seat, “Cass drives very well. I taught her.”

Helena isn’t sure this means anything good, but once again holds back a comment; and a second later, as Cassandra starts the engine, Dinah snuggles up to her again, and she forgets all about possible dangers caused by the young girl driving, wrapping one arm around the other woman and holding her close as the car speeds off into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually have no idea if it's possible to catch a bolt like that when your name isn't Buffy Summers or Xena (or Helena Bertinelli). Eh, freedom of art and Rule of Cool ;) Also, with these references, I probably just revealed that I'm... not old, but not young anymore, either, hahaha. Stay safe everyone!


	26. Purpose, Revisited

By the time they arrive at the apartment, Dinah is starting to feel better again already, recovering faster this time than she did at the amusement park; Helena is glad that Dinah can walk to the elevator on her own, but is also a bit dismayed, as she’s enjoyed carrying her around quite a bit. 

“Damn”, Dinah comments as she leans against the elevator wall, “you’re lucky I’m an honest person, or I would have faked weakness so you’d carry me around some more. That was really nice.”

She pushes away from the wall again and steps closer to Helena, the taller woman pulling in a sharp breath when Dinah runs her hands up and down her bare arms; smiling at her reaction, Dinah moves her hands back up so she can grab her around the biceps, then pulls her closer and into a kiss, a kiss which starts out fairly innocent, but quickly becomes quite heated.

The elevator doors sliding open force them to pull apart again, and Helena finds herself breathing heavily as she steps out of the elevator and heads to the apartment door; Dinah is right behind her, and she can hear that the other woman is just as affected, and finds herself wondering if any plans to take it slow are flying out the window this very moment.

Her blood is up, as usual after a fight, so her self-control might not be the best; and she feels what she can only describe as arousal, a fire burning in her lower belly, and judging from how Dinah fidgets behind her as she waits for her to unlock the door, she feels  _ something _ too, Helena feeling woozy at the idea that she is the one who makes her feel that way. 

Somehow, she still manages to keep her hand steady enough to get the key into the lock; quickly, she steps inside, and the second Dinah is inside too, Helena turns to face her and kisses her again, the door behind her giving her some support as she pulls the assassin closer to herself.

Her heart is racing, and her breath is heavy, but she reminds herself that all of this is new for Helena and that she needs to let her set the pace for this; and so, Dinah holds back somewhat… until Helena pulls back from the kiss, and stares at her with fire in her eyes, voice down to a stunningly sexy low growl when she presses out “bedroom” between grit teeth.

For a moment, Dinah considers to ask her if she’s sure, but one look is enough to let the words die on her lips - Helena is looking at her with what only can be described as desire, and a moment later, makes her intentions very clearly by bending down and picking her up on her arms again, a squeal escaping her before she can stop herself.

“That you can do it is so fucking hot”, she then declares, earning a smirk from the taller woman as she carries her to her bedroom; some of Helena’s suddenly acquired confidence fades though when they arrive there and she realizes she doesn’t really have an idea what to do next.

“No worries”, Dinah quickly senses what is going on while Helena lowers her onto the bed, taking hold of her and pulling her on top of her, “just do what feels good, alright? Tell me if you don’t like something I do, and I’ll do the same, and it’ll be just great.”

Helena can only nod, then figures kissing again is a good start, and does just that; and as it turns out as the night progresses, she’s not only a natural at kissing, but at other things, too, if the way she makes Dinah moan her name is any indication.

She can get used to that sound, she ponders as she tries her best to cause it again, and she hopes she’ll hear it much more often in the future.

* * *

In the next morning, when Helena wakes up, she finds Dinah already awake and looking at her; the singer smiles and mumbles “good morning”, then kisses her, slow and thoroughly, a kiss quite different to the heated ones they’ve shared the previous night. 

“Hmmm”, Dinah adds after the kiss, eyes sparkling, “I could get used to starting my days like that.”

“Me too”, Helena agrees at once, only to pull in a sharp breath again when Dinah lazily runs her fingers over her bare stomach; she encounters one of several scars as she does so, and pauses, tracing the thin line with her fingertips, and taking note of how Helena shudders at the gentle touch.

“What caused this?” she wants to know, taking a closer look now, “looks like it went deep before it healed.”

“Knife”, Helena replies, “most are knife scars, actually. One gunshot here and this was caused by a bicycle chain.”

She points out the scars in question, at her shoulder and her upper thigh; Dinah has noticed them previous night, she’s noticed quite a few things about Helena’s body actually, but she’s had other things on her mind back then, letting out a “tsk tsk” sound now as she shakes her head.

“You better be more careful in the future”, she then admonishes, Helena raising an eyebrow, then shrugging, “not that I mind patching you up, but I don’t like seeing you hurt. And I want to keep you around for a long time.”

“Good to know”, Helena says with a smile, “cause I want to be around you for a long time, too.”

She falls silent, trying to sort her thoughts as there is something else she wants to say,  _ has _ to say; and Dinah senses this, and remains silent, giving her the time she needs to find the words as she gently keeps caressing her.

“When I got done”, Helena finally says, having to swallow a few times before she can continue, “I wasn’t sure… what to do with my life. I felt useless, lost. But now… I don’t feel like this anymore. Because I got you, and Renee, and what we do and… you mean so much to me.”

She doesn’t say  _ I love you _ , not yet, even though she is fairly certain that this is exactly what she feels; even she knows though that it’s early for that, but it seems she doesn’t have to say it, anyway, the knowing look Dinah gives her telling her that Dinah knows very well what she is thinking.

“You mean much to me, too”, she reassures the taller woman, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek before she goes on, “and I’m glad I get to be part of your life now.”

Helena nods and pulls her closer again, enjoying her scent in her nose and the warmth of her body against her own; and as they lie there, snuggled up close, she realizes how happy and content she feels, the emptiness she’d felt after her completed mission completely gone.

She’s found an even better purpose now, she realizes, and it’s not just the noble goal of making Gotham a better place; she also wants to make Dinah happy, every day for as long as Dinah will let her, and Helena figures that this is one of the best goals in life she can have.

She’ll try her best to fulfil it, every day for the days to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This started out as a one-shot with the thought "I just gotta get this tiny little idea out of my brain". Now I got another story for this pairing finished, am having ideas for a bunch of one-shots and started writing another multi-chapter fic. Yay for inspiring pairings XD Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I had fun writing it, and stay safe. :)


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